By Noah Dalton
BLOOMINGTON – After picking up their 10th win of the season against Perry Central on Saturday, eclipsing double-digit wins for the first time since the 2019-20 season, Mitchell High School traveled to Bloomington South, looking to carry that momentum forward against one of the state’s most historic programs.
The Panthers boast three state championship wins in their program’s history, including an undefeated season in 2009, in which they finished with a 26-0 record.
Since 1982, a span which includes two of those championship wins, the team has been led by Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame head coach JR Holmes, the namesake of their home floor and the state’s winningest coach in history with over 900 career victories.
Needless to say, the matchup posed a tall task for Mitchell, even with Bloomington South (9-8) off to their worst start since the 2012-13 season.
Regardless, On Thursday against Mitchell Holmes and the Panthers added another win to his historic total, as Bloomington South comfortably beat the Bluejackets, 72-38.
The Panthers began the game on a 13-0 run, holding Mitchell scoreless for nearly the first five minutes of the first quarter before a basket from senior Dawson Irwin put the Bluejackets on the board for the first time.
From there, South never looked back, though Mitchell’s offense did get hot in the second quarter behind 11 straight points on four consecutive makes from guard Austin Mosier, which forced a timeout from Holmes. Even with the momentary explosion, the Bluejackets were only able to reduce the Panthers’ advantage to 11, before it shot back up to 16 by the end of the half.
They went on to outscore Mitchell 34-16 in the second half to close out the win.
Bloomington South’s offensive efficiency helped pave the way to victory for them, as the Panthers shot 62% from the floor, including 58% from three, knocking down 10 shots from beyond the arc.
Bluejackets’ head coach Jackson Ryan gave credit to South and the consistent strength of their program, saying he views their success in that regard as a goal he’d like to eventually see achieved at Mitchell.
“It’s just a great program. I think that’s what tonight was. I mean, you can tell that, 1-10, all those guys, just the shooting. That doesn’t happen overnight. That’s the result of those guys getting up 100-200 extra shots a day in the offseason. I think that was the difference tonight,” he said.
“We can scout, practice, and prepare, but the difference between us and them is not going to be made up in a couple of days of practice. It’s something that hopefully in the offseason, we can take that to heart and remember tonight, remember this moment. This is where we want to be as a program. We want to be able to compete with the Bloomington Souths and the other schools locally on that level.”
Ryan felt his team’s performance on defense played a role in Bloomington South’s success shooting the ball, as he felt they made costly mistakes which gave up open looks to a team filled with capable shooters.
“We take a lot of pride in our scouting and with a team like that, it’s just pick your poison. I thought transition was pretty weak tonight defensively for us. I thought in the half court we were really bad, weak side help. Is that us needing to go back to the drawing board and drill that a little bit more? Is that us paying too much attention to our scouting report? I don’t know. But that’s something between now and next Friday that we can go back to the drawing board and make a point of emphasis this next week into practice and kind of get to the basics and back to the fundamentals defensively,” he said.
Looking ahead, Mitchell will next take the floor on Friday, Feb. 16, traveling to Logootee to take on the Lions (10-7).
After that matchup, the Bluejackets will have just four remaining on their schedule before they head into sectionals, where some of the area’s best, like Paoli and Linton-Stockton, will await them.
Ryan said a matchup like Thursday’s against South helps the team to prepare for postseason play, giving them an opportunity to face top competition late in the season.
He said it will be key for them to learn from this game, as well as take the next few weeks to heal up, as the team is currently missing two starters, Ben Seitzinger, who suffered a concussion, and Bryson Shoults, who is healing from an ankle injury.
“We scheduled this game as a tune-up, as a measuring stick, between now and that first week of March, sectional week. If we want to beat Sullivan, Paoli, Linton, it’s gonna take competition like this to get us ready. There were things that we went against tonight, that we saw tonight throughout the game that I can’t simulate at practice, the length, the physicality. So, it’s just great for us to see and that’s exactly why we signed up for this game,” said Ryan.
“The biggest thing for us right now, we got to get healthy. Hopefully, we can get Ben and Bryson back here in the next couple of weeks. I think once we get that and get rolling, then I like where we’ll be at.”
Stats
Mitchell
- Austin Mosier: 15 points, 6/15 shooting, 0/0 FT, 0 rebounds
- Dawson Irwin: 6 points, 3/8 shooting, 0/0 FT, 1 rebound
- Kale England: 2 points, 1/5 shooting, 0/0 FT, 0 rebound
- Gavin Robinson: 7 points, 2/7 shooting, 3/4 FT, 9 rebounds
- Aiden Pridemore: 2 points, 1/2 shooting, 0/0 FT, 0 rebounds
- Nate Robertson: 0 points, 0/0 shooting, 0/0 FT, 2 rebounds
- Carl Chenault: 4 points, 2/4 shooting, 0/0 FT, 2 rebounds
- Tate Woods: 2 points, 0/0 shooting, 2/2 FT, 1 rebound
- Lucas Gosnell: 0 points, 0/1 shooting, 0/0 FT, 1 rebound
Bloomington South
- Vincent Moutadier: 12 points, 5/11 shooting, 0/0 FT, 3 rebounds
- Jack Clark: 0 points, 0/1 shooting, 0/0 FT, 1 rebound
- Alex Shaevitz: 12 points, 6/8 shooting, 0/0 FT, 7 rebounds
- Taye Spears: 12 points, 4/7 shooting, 2/3 FT, 4 rebounds
- Zach Sims: 15 points, 6/9 shooting, 0/0 FT, 2 rebounds
- Andrew Elsesser: 2 points, 1/4 shooting, 0/0 FT, 2 rebounds
- Tucker Simpson: 8 points, 3/4 shooting, 0/0 FT, 0 rebounds
- Cruz Sanchez: 4 points, 2/2 shooting, 0/1 FT, 0 rebounds
- Malakai Goodman: 2 points, 1/2 shooting, 0/0 FT, 2 rebounds
- Matt Tierney: 0 points, 0/1 shooting, 0/0 FT, 2 rebounds
- Duncan Combs: 5 points, 2/3 shooting, 0/0 FT, 3 rebounds
