By Noah Dalton
Perhaps the biggest difficulty that faced Mitchell High School in the matchup Saturday night against Brown County was a moral dilemma; do they continue trying to score, perhaps in an unsportsmanlike way to try to hit the big 100-point mark, or do they run-out the clock as is traditionally done.
On the game’s final possession, the Bluejackets had the ball with 30 seconds to play up 46 on the Eagles, 98-52. With the crowd at The Hive willing them to hit triple-digits, Mitchell head coach Jackson Ryan called for his players to dribble out the clock, a decision that surely was appreciated by the Brown County faithful in attendance, but not as much by the home crowd.
Outside of that and the first few minutes of play, where the Eagles jumped out to an early 7-0 lead before a quick timeout from Ryan, the Bluejackets didn’t seem to struggle with much else on their way to a dominant victory.
Even without hitting 100, this was still a historic performance from Mitchell, who scored the most points the team has scored in a game in 25 years, when they scored 98 against Springs Valley in the 1997-98 season.
A win like this will always be appreciated, but it’s even more meaningful when you consider that the Bluejackets came into the game on a seven-game losing streak, having just lost to Loogootee the night before by 35.
“The last handful of games, the kids have been working hard. We’ve been playing well and it’s just unfortunate that the kids aren’t rewarded for that and I think tonight we were finally able to be rewarded, to see the ball go in, to everybody play well and consistently do that for the game outside of the first 90 seconds of the game,” said Ryan. “We think we’ve got some winnable games coming up here and hopefully we can streak some together and then go from there.”
The team’s scoring efforts on the night were well spread around, with Mitchell finishing the game with 5 double-digit scorers: Dawson Irwin with 10, Ben Seitzinger with 15, Brendan Tolliver with 19 to lead all scorers, Aiden Pridemore with 16 and Bryson Shoults with 12.
Ryan said the team’s scoring was the result of their unselfishness in this game, which he said stood out to him as one of the key strengths in their performance.
“Offensively when we spread the basketball, we move the basketball and spread the floor and just make the right play, making the extra pass, good things happen. And I think anytime you put up 98 points that’s not one person unless you’re Wilt Chamberlain or whoever,” Ryan said. “But yeah, just proud of how we moved the basketball. That’s a staple for us. We’re never going to be a team that just has one guy. Whether it’s offense, defense, rebounding, we try to do everything by committee. So it’s not just one person, it was a team effort tonight for us to get to that.”
Looking ahead, the Bluejackets will be looking to keep this momentum going through the final three games of the season as they look toward sectionals.
Ryan feels the key for them to build off this victory and hopefully add a few more to their season win-loss record, which now sits at 4-16, will be consistency and continued hard work each day at practice to close out their season.
“I thought (Feb. 10 against Loogootee) the score doesn’t show it, but I thought that we had a great opportunity there. I think in that game at halftime last night if that score is different we have potential for a different result there. But I think that was a result of a bad practice that we had coming into the game,” said Ryan.
“So, I’ll be very curious to see practice wise when we come in early next week, where are we? Are we still bought in to doing the little things and practicing hard and being consistent every day? Or is it going to be a roller-coaster ride? So hopefully, we do those things and continue to build and continue to ride this momentum. But that’s definitely going to start in practice for us,” he continued.
Stats
Mitchell
- Dawson Irwin — 10 points, 4/6 shooting, 0/0 FT, 0 rebounds
- Austin Mosier — 2 points, 1/2 shooting, 0/0 FT, 3 rebounds
- Ben Seitzinger — 15 points, 5/6 shooting, 3/7 FT, 9 rebounds
- Kale England — 8 points, 3/7 shooting, 2/2 FT, 5 rebounds
- Brendan Tolliver — 19 points, 7/11 shooting, 4/8 FT, 5 rebounds
- Gavin Robinson — 5 points, 1/3 shooting, 3/4 FT, 5 rebounds
- Aiden Pridemore — 16 points, 6/8 shooting, 2/2 FT, 2 rebounds
- Bryson Shoults — 12 points, 5/6 shooting, 2/3 FT, 3 rebounds
- Owen Modglin — 4 points, 2/4 shooting, 0/0 FT, 0 rebounds
- Dawson Snow — 1 point, 0/0 shooting, 1/2 FT, 0 rebounds
- Connor Teague — 4 points, 1/2 shooting, 2/2 FT, 4 rebounds
- Garrett Floerke — 2 points, 0/0 shooting, 2/2 FT, 0 rebounds
Brown County
- Caleb Hammond — 2 points, 0/0 shooting, 2/2 FT, 0 rebounds
- Matthew Horn — 6 points, 2/5 shooting, 2/2 FT, 2 rebounds
- Logan Weis — 0 points, 0/2 shooting, 0/0 FT, 0 rebounds
- Eli Harden — 3 points, 0/5 shooting, 3/4 FT, 2 rebounds
- Noah Lewis — 4 points, 1/1 shooting, 2/2 FT, 2 rebounds
- Jesse Hubbard — 8 points, 3/11 shooting, 2/2 FT, 7 rebounds
- Westin Fulford — 7 points, 2/5 shooting, 3/5 FT, 2 rebounds
- Cash Harden — 2 points, 1/6 shooting, 0/0 FT, 0 rebounds
- Jeffrey Caudill — 0 points, 0/1 shooting, 0/0 FT, 3 rebounds
- Eli Wrightsman — 18 points, 6/13 shooting, 4/6 shooting, 1 rebound
- Billy Hubbard — 2 points, 1/2 shooting, 0/2 FT, 1 rebound
