By Noah Dalton
Mitchell High School travelled to Clay City for three consecutive days over the week to take part in the Clay City Classic tournament.
The three games contained many ups-and-downs for Mitchell, who finished the event having picked up one win in the consolation bracket.
More importantly, the team showed constant growth through their games, improving on areas that led to their two losses to open things, ultimately leading to them picking up a near 20-point win in their final game.
Game 1
A tough way to start the tournament for the Bluejackets, they took on the eventual second place finishing hometown Clay City, who went on to defeat them with a final score of 47-32.
Though Mitchell lost the game by 15, it was not always as grim a showing as the final score may suggest.
The Bluejackets got off to a solid start in the first quarter, jumping to an early 10-9 lead by the end of the period. Scoring for Mitchell was spread out, with Bryson Shoults leading the team in scoring off the bench with three points, along with Dawson Irwin, Brendan Tolliver and Ben Seitzinger adding baskets.
The second quarter was an even stronger showing from Mitchell, adding another 10 points to the team total, while forcing five takeaways from the Eels and holding them to just four points in the quarter. Again, multiple members of the team were able to put up points, with Shoults, Irwin, Seitzinger and Gavin Robinson all connecting on shots.
With a halftime score of 20-14 in favor of the Bluejackets, things seemed smooth enough for the team.
It was the third quarter of the game where things turned disastrous.
A motivated Clay City team emerged from the locker room, ready to climb their way back into the game and they did it in a big way, going on a 17-0 run in the quarter to storm their way into a suddenly commanding lead.
The Eels scored 20 points in the period, enough on its’ own to match Mitchell’s entire first half output. In doing so, they shot 70% as a team, including Reilly Myers who scored 11 himself on a perfect 4/4 from the field.
Couple a performance like that with defense that held the Bluejackets to just two points, which came from Seitzinger free-throws and the large swing in the score begins to make much more sense.
Mitchell head coach Jackson Ryan felt his team played with a lack of urgency in the third quarter as Clay City continued to move towards taking over the game.
We just came out in the third quarter and were not ready. I don’t know what it is. I don’t know if I need to go into the locker room and throw chairs around or what I need to do, but we just didn’t have a sense of urgency,” he said.
Ryan also said as things became more difficult for them in the game, he felt the team struggling to stick together.
“The biggest problem was when it got tough, we started to point the finger at each other instead of coming together, we really fell apart,” said Ryan.
Heading into the fourth, Mitchell found themselves down 11 after carrying a lead over an Eels team who had just barely scored that many points in the entire first half.
In the final period of play, they were able to somewhat bounce back to their feet, scoring 10 points as a team in the quarter, matching what they had done in both the first and the second. Seitzinger, Shoults, Kale England and Austin Mosier all scored for the team in the period.
As the Bluejackets were finding their earlier form, the Eels continued to roll, scoring another 14 in the fourth to close out the game. In large part, this was thanks to senior Elliott Rogers, who led Clay City in scoring for the quarter after shooting a perfect 6/6 from the free-throw line.
Second half struggles like this have plagued Mitchell all season, leading to them losing multiple games that could have been added to their win column. Heading into the tournament, the team had lost two straight, with their last win coming on Dec. 16 in a blow-out against North Knox. Prior to that; three more consecutive losses.
Ryan feels these losses have caused the Bluejackets to hesitate and question plays throughout the game, leading to diminished returns later in games.
“I think in the first half, we’re playing more freely on both ends of the floor. And almost instinctively, we react a lot better. And then the second half gets tight and in the meantime, we’re second guessing ourselves. In the first half, we’re stepping into a shot and shooting, the second half, we’re thinking in the back of our mind, you know, what should I do here?” Ryan said.
“So, that just comes with experience, number one. And number two, when you’re on a losing streak, when you’re struggling to find ways to win, that just makes it that much harder. It makes that rim that much smaller and makes you second guess those decisions. And so it’s tough. It really is tough, but you’ve got to find a way to correct those things,” he continued.
Game two
With that loss, Mitchell dropped to the consolation bracket, where they next took on Riverton Parke, who lost their first round matchup to Owen Valley.
Much like game one, the first quarter of this game was a back-and-forth battle, with the Panthers emerging on top by just two points, 14-12, after eight minutes. Shoults and Aiden Pridemore each drained threes in the first, along with two-point efforts from Mosier, Seitzinger and Tolliver.
The Bluejackets picked things up in the second, taking a two-point lead by the end of the half, 21-19. Though they only forced one Riverton Parke turnover in the second, defensively their effort was solid, as they held the Panthers without a made field goal in the period and their only coming from the charity stripe.
Though the held their opponents to an 0/8 shooting quarter, Mitchell had struggles of their own getting their attempts to go down, with Pridemore and Mosier the only ones to connect on shots in the second, nailing one each, as the team shot 22%.
Once again though, a half-time lead from the Bluejackets was lost by the end of the third quarter, with the Panthers pulling it back in their favor, by a score of 32-27.
In the first half, Mitchell turned the ball over five teams. Not ideal, unless compared to the third, where they more than doubled that total over the course of the period, giving the ball away six times.
Both teams continued to have a hard time find the bottom of the net, with the Bluejackets shooting 27% on 11 attempts and Riverton Parke just above them at 33% on 12 attempts.
In the fourth, the Panthers extended their lead as high as nine points, with around five minutes left after a three-pointer from senior Mathew Mullins.
Though Mitchell were able to cut the lead down to five with four minutes left on the clock, they were unable to overcome Riverton Parke and senior Derron Hazzard, who led his team to a 51-44 win, scoring eight points in the fourth and connecting on both of his shot attempts while shooting 4/4 from the free-throw line to lead all scorers in the period.
Ryan felt his team showed improvement from game-to-game, though he still noted areas of their play that needed additional attention.
“Once again, it demonstrates at the end of the game we’re just not making enough winning plays. As frustrating as that is, we’ve just gotta continue to learn and get better,” he said.
“I do think tonight was a step in the right direction, we definitely played better, but we’re just doing little mental errors coming out of the huddle, not knowing who your guarding, giving an open three, not executing at the end of the quarter. I mean, just little, little stuff like that, that we’ve got to correct. And until we do, this is going to be the result,” Ryan added.
With their final matchup of the tournament ahead the next day against North Vermillion, Ryan hoped to see his team make an effort to improve the previously mentioned mental mistakes and lack of urgency, among other things.
“Guys just have to step up across the board, whether that’s executing or, a sense of urgency. You know, just again, details. Diving on the floor for loose balls, executing our sets, knowing the scouting report, there was a lot of mental errors on the scouting report tonight that we we gave up and our coaching staff, we work way too hard on our scouting to give these things up. So that’s very frustrating, but we’ve got to keep working,” he said after Wednesday’s game.
Game three
Though there was no trophy on the line in this third matchup of the event for the Bluejackets, it served as an opportunity for them to right the wrongs of their first two games and end what had grown to a four game losing streak. They did just that against the Falcons.
Mitchell was off to the races early, posting a 29-point first quarter, nearly topping their entire total from game one. Almost every member of the team found a way to score in the period, though none more than Seitzinger, who scored 11 on 5/6 shooting.
The first quarter was capped off with a three from England with just a few seconds remaining. Just after the second began, the Bluejackets picked up right where they left off with Pridemore draining a triple, which extended their lead to twenty, where it remain around for the majority of the game.
Though the scoring between the teams in the quarter was much closer, with Mitchell totalling 12 points and North Vermillion at 10, the large 17-point lead built by the Bluejackets during the first was enough cushion for them to edge by.
After ending the half up 19 with a three from Irwin, all Mitchell had to do was hang on, something that had proven difficult for them during the course of the season, including both games of this tournament this far.
Like Ryan had spoken about after the earlier games, the Bluejackets played in the second half with urgency on both sides of the ball, allowing them to extend their lead in the third, albeit slightly, to 21.
Much like the second quarter, Mitchell scored 12, but held the Panthers to 10, while continuing to force turnovers with their defensive pressure. A 30% shooting quarter like the Bluejackets had in the third can be a problem, as was evidenced in the previous day’s game against Riverton Parke.
If your shots aren’t falling, what’s a solution for that problem? Mitchell’s was to force North Vermillion to shoot 22% across 17 attempts in the period, which proved effective.
The Panthers were finally able to outscore the Bluejackets over the course of a full quarter in the fourth 11-9, though given they entered down by over 20 it did not end up mattering much.
After the game, Ryan praised his team’s effort on defense, as well as their unselfish play on offense, hoping their able to build upon what they did in Clay City as they prepare to take on Patoka Lake Athletic Conference opponent Paoli (5-2) in their next game.
“I thought that we really set the tone defensively, mixing things up a lot and really competed. And I think then offensively, if you share the basketball like that. I mean, 22 assists is what we had on our end. So that’s awesome. You’re gonna win a lot ballgames, playing like that. So hopefully, we can bottle that up. Have a great week of practice, and then head over to Paoli with little momentum,” said Ryan.
Though they didn’t leave with first place honors, Ryan felt good about his team’s continued growth throughout the event, as the team was able to highlight inefficiencies from game-to-game and set them on the right course the more time they spent on the court.
“I think what I’m most happy with proud of this week is every game we got better. Just little things, you know, recognizing time and score, staying together, playing together, communicating together in a positive fashion,” he said.
“Tuesday night, we were just pointing the finger at each other left and right. Fast forward to today, 22 assists, sharing the basketball, making an extra pass, hyping up the team and enjoying each other’s success. It’s funny when you play together how many little things just take care of themselves. So, we still have a lot of work to do, still very far from finished product. But, excited if we can continue this growth and excited with this direction,” Ryan continued after Thursday’s game.
Full Tournament Stats (all three games combined)
- Dawson Irwin – 11 points, 4/18 shooting, 11 rebounds
- Austin Mosier – 23 points, 9/17 shooting, 4 rebounds
- Kale England – 15 points, 9/17 shooting, 11 rebounds
- Ben Seitzinger – 40 points, 18/25 shooting, 17 rebounds
- Brendan Tolliver – 16 points, 6/14 shooting, 9 rebounds
- Aiden Pridemore – 16 points, 6/13 shooting, 4 rebounds
- Bryson Shoults – 14 points, 4/12 shooting, 4 rebounds
- Gavin Robinson 2 points, 1/1 shooting, 0 rebounds
- Carl Chenault – 1 point, 0/0 shooting, 1 rebound
- Dawson Snow – 0 points, 0/0 shooting, 3 rebounds
- Owen Modglin – 0 points, 0/1 shooting, 1 rebound
