By Noah Dalton
MITCHELL — Mitchell High School’s 2025 season came to an end on Tuesday, with the Bluejackets falling in the opening round of the 2A Sectional 46 tournament to Clarksville, 47-40.
The game was down to the wire, with both sides holding close throughout, though the Generals were the ones in control of the early minutes.
Clarksville scored the first four points of the night, holding that lead and eventually going up by seven points, 23-16 with just a few minutes left in the second quarter. Then, the Bluejackets made a strong push before the halftime buzzer, scoring six straight points to enter the locker room trailing by just one.
They carried that momentum into the second half, with Abigail Fountain scoring a basket early in the third to give Mitchell their first lead of the night, though it was short lived with a brief cold streak allowing Clarksville to get ahead once again by a slim margin a few minutes later.
In the fourth, the back-and-forth continued, though the number of fouls committed up to that point began to plague the Bluejackets in a major way down the stretch.
Entering the fourth, Mitchell had multiple players in foul trouble, including two starters, Fountain and Raylee Thompson, sitting at four fouls by the end of the third quarter, just one away from being forced out for the rest of the game.
Those worries came true, with the Bluejackets first losing Thompson after a foul called thirty seconds into the fourth quarter. Next, starting guard Anna Sowders fouled out a few minutes later with the team eventually losing Fountain and Jorja Lamm to foul-outs as well by the final whistle.
In total, four of Mitchell’s starters fouled out of the game, with 30 fouls called against them in the game. Those foul calls resulted in a total of 45 free-throw attempts for the Generals, who knocked down 25 of them.
“We did things to beat ourselves tonight, and the foul trouble was definitely one,” said Bluejackets head coach Dakota Brasher. “We had a couple of silly fouls from some of our key players swiping down at the ball, things we’ve worked on all year. So, little things like that hurt us. In a game like this, every detail matters, and we teach not to swipe down at the ball, and we just had a couple things not go our way tonight.”
Despite the foul trouble, the Bluejackets continued to battle down the stretch, keeping the game within reach.
They brought the lead down to three with just over a minute remaining after Paisley Modglin was fouled on a three and knocked down all of her subsequent attempts at the line.
Ultimately though, Clarksville’s 24 fourth-quarter free throw attempts, 13 of which were knocked down to account for all of their points in the period, combined with losing key players was too much for Mitchell to overcome.
Despite the result, the Bluejackets were an improved version of themselves from the way they’d played in the previous few games leading up to this one, particularly on the offensive end.
In their last two losses, which came at the hands of Paoli and Orleans, Mitchell scored just 13 and 16 points in those matchups respectively.
After their loss to the Bulldogs to close the regular season, Brasher noted the team’s lack of production on offense, citing it as one of the key area’s they’d need to improve in. Though they lost, their 40 points scored was the highest total the team had posted in a losing effort all season.
According to Brasher, the team did so by playing more aggressively, looking to attack defenders, a mentality that netted the Bluejackets 17 attempts at the line of their own, which had been one of their keys to success throughout the year.
Sowders was the leader in that effort for Mitchell, scoring a game-high 13 points and knocking down 5/6 FTs.
“We had an attack mentality tonight. I thought we did a great job of getting downhill and really trying to attack them on the bounce. And that was our point of emphasis, it was one of our keys to the game, was to make sure we attack them off the bounce,” said Brasher.
“I looked at the stats and in losses we make around three free throws a game, and in wins, we make around 13 free throws a game. So, we knew that we needed to get to the free throw line, and we did that, we just came up a little short.”
Improvement such as that had been at the forefront of Mitchell’s approach throughout the season, with the team fielding a young roster with just two seniors and many players getting some of their first varsity minutes, while also missing some key contributors due to injuries large stretches of the season.
One area where that improvement is most notable is the team’s overall record, 4-19, a vast improvement from the previous season and Brasher’s first leading the program, where the team finished 1-22.
Brasher has seen that improvement, not just in Tuesday’s game, but all throughout the season in a variety of places.
“Just all around. Buy-in, defensively we’re in the right spots more and more. Tonight, we were tough. We hit the glass hard,” he said. “This is my second year, still building trust, still building those relationships, but I think we’re getting there. We’re still building a program.
This one hurts, but if I can get that energy out of them next year, we’re somebody to watch out for. If we get healthier, we’re somebody to watch out for.”
With the majority of the roster as underclassmen, Brasher and the Bluejackets will be able to continue their progress next season, though they will miss two seniors who will be moving on after graduation, Sowders and Lamm.
Brasher said the pair have served as leaders for the group, helping to teach and guide the younger players on the team, as well as setting an example for them to follow.
“They are two great young ladies, and they led our team. They were top-notch leaders this year, you know, and they trusted me to make the right decisions for them, and I trusted them,” he said. “I love coaching them. I’m going to miss having them, but they’ve set our culture going forward, so credit to them.”
Brasher expects his team to continue to improve next season, as he looks to keep building the program in his third season.
“We’ve had a lot of development. We lost one of our key sophomores early in the year, so she missed out on some of that development. We’ve got to get her healthy. But we had some girls step up tonight. We’ve got some freshmen that are stepping up. We’re still going to be feeling growing pains, but we’ve got to stay the course,” he said.
“It’s not about seeking championships, it’s a process. It’s the process of going for that championship that you have to enjoy. I think we’re finally starting to get bought into that, and I’m excited to see where this program goes.”
Box Score
Mitchell Stats
Points: 40 | FGM: 12/52 | FG%: 23.08% | 3PM: 3/20 | 3P%: 15.00% | FTM: 14/17 | FT%: 82.35% | Rebounds: 26 | Team Turnovers: 20
Individual Player Stats for Mitchell:
#0 Asiah Saunders – Points: 2 | FGM: 0/4 | FG%: 0.00% | 3PM: 0/2 | 3P%: 0.00% | FTM: 2/2 | FT%: 100.00% | Rebounds: 3
#1 Paisley Modglin – Points: 6 | FGM: 1/6 | FG%: 16.67% | 3PM: 1/6 | 3P%: 16.67% | FTM: 3/3 | FT%: 100.00% | Rebounds: 8
#3 Anna Sowders – Points: 13 | FGM: 3/9 | FG%: 33.33% | 3PM: 2/7 | 3P%: 28.57% | FTM: 5/6 | FT%: 83.33% | Rebounds: 2
#11 Raylee Thompson – Points: 6 | FGM: 2/20 | FG%: 10.00% | 3PM: 0/3 | 3P%: 0.00% | FTM: 2/4 | FT%: 50.00% | Rebounds: 3
#12 Avah Cooper – Points: | FGM: / | FG%: 0% | 3PM: / | 3P%: 0% | FTM: / | FT%: 0% | Rebounds:
#14 Karlee Gabhart – Points: | FGM: / | FG%: 0% | 3PM: / | 3P%: 0% | FTM: / | FT%: 0% | Rebounds:
#15 Abigail Fountain – Points: 10 | FGM: 5/7 | FG%: 71.43% | 3PM: 0/0 | 3P%: 0% | FTM: 0/0 | FT%: 0% | Rebounds: 4
#20 Jorja Lamm – Points: | FGM: / | FG%: 0% | 3PM: / | 3P%: 0% | FTM: / | FT%: 0% | Rebounds:
#22 Gracie Kohlhaas – Points: 0 | FGM: 0/2 | FG%: 0.00% | 3PM: 0/1 | 3P%: 0.00% | FTM: 0/0 | FT%: 0% | Rebounds: 0
#24 Ava Woods – Points: 3 | FGM: 1/4 | FG%: 25.00% | 3PM: 0/1 | 3P%: 0.00% | FTM: 2/2 | FT%: 100.00% | Rebounds: 6
#4 Gwen Eastridge – Points: | FGM: / | FG%: 0% | 3PM: / | 3P%: 0% | FTM: / | FT%: 0% | Rebounds:
#2 Leighann Thompson – Points: | FGM: / | FG%: 0% | 3PM: / | 3P%: 0% | FTM: / | FT%: 0% | Rebounds:
Clarksville Stats
Points: 47 | FGM: 10/44 | FG%: 22.73% | 3PM: 2/10 | 3P%: 20.00% | FTM: 25/45 | FT%: 55.56% | Rebounds: 29 | Team Turnovers: 14
Individual Player Stats for Clarksville:
#11 Tiarra Lewis – Points: 12 | FGM: 2/12 | FG%: 16.67% | 3PM: 1/2 | 3P%: 50.00% | FTM: 7/12 | FT%: 58.33% | Rebounds: 6
#10 Julia Perissi – Points: 8 | FGM: 1/5 | FG%: 20.00% | 3PM: 1/4 | 3P%: 25.00% | FTM: 5/6 | FT%: 83.33% | Rebounds: 1
#42 Kendra White – Points: 9 | FGM: 2/10 | FG%: 20.00% | 3PM: 0/0 | 3P%: 0% | FTM: 5/10 | FT%: 50.00% | Rebounds: 5
#21 Kylie Raggard – Points: 5 | FGM: 1/7 | FG%: 14.29% | 3PM: 0/3 | 3P%: 0.00% | FTM: 3/4 | FT%: 75.00% | Rebounds: 2
#55 Jayonna Shirley – Points: 4 | FGM: 2/2 | FG%: 100.00% | 3PM: 0/0 | 3P%: 0% | FTM: 0/0 | FT%: 0% | Rebounds: 2
#14 Makayia Nash – Points: 3 | FGM: 1/4 | FG%: 25.00% | 3PM: 0/0 | 3P%: 0% | FTM: 1/2 | FT%: 50.00% | Rebounds: 7
#12 Aaliyah Watts – Points: 6 | FGM: 1/4 | FG%: 25.00% | 3PM: 0/1 | 3P%: 0.00% | FTM: 4/11 | FT%: 36.36% | Rebounds: 6
.png)
.JPG)
