By Noah Dalton
MITCHELL — Coming off their first win of the season on Tuesday, a 49-40 defeat of Brown County, Mitchell High School was back in action on Thursday looking to carry that momentum forward against Patoka Lake Athletic Conference opponent West Washington.
After a strong start to the night for the Bluejackets, who led the game for much of the first quarter, the Senators were able to come charging back to eventually win the matchup in convincing fashion 56-19.
After West Washington junior Meredith Deaton knocked down two free throws early on to mark the first points of the night, Mitchell’s Gwen Eastridge and Paisley Modglin each knocked down a three to put the Bluejackets in front 6-2.
The Senators continued to get to the line, attempting eight free throws in the period and knocking down six of them to find consistent offense, before their first field goal of the game, a layup from Ava Woods, put them back in the driver’s seat with a two-point lead.
That run marked the beginning of a dominant stretch for West Washington, who finished the first half outscoring Mitchell 27-1 after the Bluejackets cashed their early attempts from outside.
Mitchell head coach Dakota Brasher thought the game began to shift in the first after the frustration from a few mistakes from the Bluejackets began to build and show in different areas of their game.
“We played really physical and aggressive and high energy and high effort for five or six minutes there and then I think we just let one mistake lead to two and two lead to three. We just have to grow up and mature as a team. That’s the stuff that can’t happen and that comes with age and it comes with experience,” he said.
“In the second quarter, we just didn’t hit any shots. We couldn’t get to the foul line very well. They really pushed us out defensively and then when you’re not making shots, it’s tough to set the defense up and and get stops. Defense is better when the ball is going through the hoop and we just didn’t have a lot of that tonight.”
Though the Bluejackets found some more offense in the third quarter in the form of another three from Eastridge and four quick points from Abigail Fountain, the Senators continued to build steam and extend their lead, largely thanks to the efforts of Deaton, who scored 11 in the period after scoring 15 in the first half.
Near the end of the third, she was able to force a turnover and score a layup on the other end to push West Washington’s lead to 35 points, starting the IHSAA mercy rule running clock for the remainder of the game.
One of the keys to the Senator’s success on the night was their effort on the glass, as they doubled Mitchell’s total rebounds on the night, 34-17.
Many of those snagged were on the offensive end for West Washington, leading to second and in some cases, third or fourth chances to help them continue building their lead.
“Every rebound that goes up is a 50/50 basketball. That’s what we tell our girls. You can teach technique, you can teach all sorts of things, and we have, but at the end of the day, somebody’s gonna come up with that basketball,” said Brasher. “For me, it’s attitude over technique and we’ve gotta develop an attitude that the ball is in the air and we’ve gotta go get it,” he added.
Deaton led all scorers on the night with 26 points. Also in double figures for West Washington was Emma Schmidt, who scored 11.
For the Bluejackets, Gwen Eastridge led the way with six points coming on two made threes. Fountain scored five points, Modglin and Ava Woods each scored three and Avah Cooper added two.
Next for Mitchell will be Eastern (9-3), who will travel to The Hive on Tuesday with tip-off set for 7:30.
