By Noah Dalton
MITCHELL — After a strong showing in the first half that saw the team head into the locker room with a 20-point lead, Mitchell High School managed to pick up the 80-66 win over North Knox to bring their record for the year to 3-2.
The Bluejackets jumped out to an early 13-2 lead in the first quarter, led by senior Gavin Robinson, who scored 11 straight. Though afterwards the Warriors managed to score a couple more times in the period, Mitchell finished the first with a 14-point advantage, after back-to-back threes from Caedon Goldsberry and Garrett Floreke.
The Bluejackets’ momentum carried into the second quarter, where they extended their lead to 20 points, 37-17, by the half, doing so through excellent offensive efficiency.
In the first half, Mitchell shot 70% from the field as a team (14/20), knocking down 83% of their attempts from beyond the arc (5/6).
“I thought we did a great job of that in the first half. It just embodied everything that I think this team can be in the first 16 minutes of the game. We were getting good shots out of it, and we were causing turnovers. We were doing what we needed to do against their team,” said Mitchell head coach Clint Roesler.
“We smothered them. I told them it looked like they were struggling to breathe, and that’s exactly how we want to play against teams. I was really proud of that effort.”
After another strong showing from the Bluejackets in the third, ultimately finishing the quarter leading 58-36, North Knox found new life in the fourth, as Mitchell found themselves in foul trouble.
Midway through the quarter, Robinson, the leading scorer for the Bluejackets with 27 points, fouled out of the game. Just one minute later, Kaden Mullis, a standout defensive player for Mitchell and a key contributor for the team also fouled out of the game.
It wasn’t long after that the Warriors had reduced the Bluejackets lead to just 11 points, 71-60, with a few minutes remaining on the clock.
Despite some turnovers and other mistakes down the stretch, Mitchell managed to fend off a resilient comeback effort from North Knox to earn their third win of the season. In total, the Warriors tallied 30 points in the fourth to outscore the Bluejackets in the quarter, but it ultimately wasn’t enough to overcome the advantage Mitchell had built up throughout the night.
“[North Knox] is just a team that doesn’t quit. I credit that a lot to Coach Adams and being able to coach them up and to not just lay down and take it. They did that again tonight to us. We got sloppy. We talk about the difference of wanting to hit shots that are wide open in transition and impress, and that’s fine, but we don’t need to be forcing things when we have a 20, 15, whatever point lead. The clock becomes our friend, and we had some guys that just could not understand that, and it was frustrating to see that,” Roesler said about the fourth quarter.
Despite the early exit, Robinson’s 27 points and seven rebounds led his team in both categories. Not far behind him was Parker Felton, who scored 21 points off the bench, nine in the fourth quarter, for the Bluejackets and played a big part in closing out the win.
[Felton] has really grown in his role this year. He’s really understanding a lot of what we want from him and need from him, and I think he’s doing a good job with that. He comes in and he always provides a spark, and I thought he did that tonight,” said Roesler.
North Knox had four players in double figures: Kyson Parker, who led the way with 19 points; Camden McCory, who scored 17 points; Will Trabant, who scored 12 points and Klouser Rode, who added 10 points.
The next night, Mitchell will take on Brownstown-Central, last season’s Class 3A Washington Regional champions. The year before last, the Braves were Indiana’s 2A State Champions.
Given the team’s success in recent years, Brownstown-Central appears on paper to be one of the toughest matchups of the season for the Bluejackets.
Roesler said his team will need to clean up some of the mistakes from the fourth quarter against North Knox that allowed them to make a comeback in the fourth in order to beat the Braves.
“We have to be able to finish better if we expect to get a win tomorrow night, and so I’m hoping that we learned a lot tonight, and we can take that into the next game,” he said.
“It’s going to be a battle tomorrow night. We can’t be too tired. They play tonight as well, so no excuses on that. We’ve just got to come in, and we’ve got to be ready to defend at the level that we did, get through actions, keep communicating better every game, and see what we can do.”
