By Noah Dalton
MITCHELL — After a solid start to the season picking up a win over Springs Valley, Mitchell High School looked to carry that momentum into Friday night, where they were matchup against another Patoka Lake Athletic Conference foe in Crawford County.
In their first game of the season at The Hive, the Bluejackets earned another win, this time in dominant fashion, besting the Wolfpack 70-38.
Mitchell flew out of the gates at the start, looking to push the pace and snag some easy baskets in transition, something they found success with throughout the night.
They rushed out to a 6-0 lead in the first few minutes, eventually finishing the first quarter up by double digits, 24-13.
Things evened out a bit in the second, though the Bluejackets were able to extend their advantage to 38-24 heading into the locker room at the half.
Though they had a comfortable lead by that point, there was one persistent thorn in Mitchell’s side early on, that being Wolfpack senior Blake Seibert, who scored 13 in the half, doing most of his damage from outside, knocking down 3/5 shots from deep.
Bluejackets head coach Clint Roesler said Seibert’s size and shooting ability posed a unique threat to Mitchell, one they’d not encountered yet early in this season. The team was forced to adjust their defense against the pick and pop, where most of his open shots had come from, as they looked to limit his opportunities from beyond the arc in the second half.
“We knew coming into the game that he was a capable shooter. We’re very new. It’s game two in our defensive system and we want to come out and we want to hedge ball screens, and to do that, Nate [Robertson] has to have help on the backside. We’ve discussed and worked on guarding guys rolling, and [Seibert] felt really confident in his shot tonight, and he popped instead of rolling. So, that added a new wrinkle to our defense that we haven’t worked on too much,” he said.
“So, in the locker room at halftime, we discussed how we can deal with a popper instead of a roller. And so, you know, we had, we had our guys. We got to help the help the helper. And I thought they really adjusted well in the second half.”
Their adjustments paid off in the second half, as the Bluejackets were able to largely shutdown Seibert, holding him to just two points and no three-point attempts in the ensuing two quarters.
With him out of the way, Mitchell started to get rolling once again.
Their defense forced seven turnovers in the third quarter, just two less than they’d gotten in the first two periods combined, and took advantage to score many of their points in transition.
They ended the third up 57-29 and didn’t look back.
Roelser felt his was at their best when they looked to play aggressively and attack the basket against the Wolfpack, something they were able to accomplish particularly in the first and third quarters, where they shot a combined 69% (18/26).
“I appreciate our guys’ effort. I thought there was a little bit of a lull in the second quarter for a few minutes. I thought we settled for a couple of shots, and we talked about that at halftime. I said, some of you guys, you’re too good to settle for the shots that you just took. We don’t need to take step-backs. We don’t need to take shots over people. Attack the rim. they’re going to wear out and get tired trying to play with us,” he said.
Mitchell’s Aiden Pridemore was the top scorer on the night, racking up 22 points, including 16 in the first half. Aiding him were Gavin Robinson with 15 points, Nate Robertson with 10 points and Austin Mosier with nine points.
Seibert was Crawford County’s top scorer with 15 points. Also in double figures for the Wolfpack was Braxton Bowman, who scored 12.
Next up on the schedule for Mitchell is Eastern Greene, who they’ll take on Saturday night, with tip-off scheduled for 7:30 p.m.
“Eastern Greene has a couple of really nice guards. They’re young guards, but they don’t play like a freshman and a sophomore. They’ve been thrust into varsity early, and they’re going to cause problems. They’re going to be really good shooters and attack the rim,” Roesler said.
“We’ll watch some film, and we’ll do some walk-through tomorrow to get prepared for them, but it’s going to be another battle.”
