By Noah Dalton
MITCHELL — Mitchell High School suffered their first Patoka Lake Athletic Conference loss of the season on Tuesday at the hands of defending 1A Indiana State Champions, Orleans, who beat them 60-39.
The win gives the Bulldogs sole possession of first place in the conference with a record of 2-0 to start the season, with the Bluejackets now sitting at 2-1 in conference play.
Orleans started the game off strong, jumping out to an early 6-2 lead, forcing turnovers that led to early baskets. Mitchell kept things even for the rest of the period, trailing 13-9 by the end.
In the second, the two sides continued at an even pace until the Bulldogs closed the period on a 10-2 run in the final minutes of the quarter, including a four-point play from #4 to put them up by double-digits, 29-17 at the half.
The Bluejackets needed a strong third quarter to close the gap, but Orleans exited the locker room determined to put the game away.
The Bulldogs scored four straight baskets to start the third quarter, holding Mitchell scoreless for nearly the first four minutes of the period.
By the end of the frame, Orleans had outscored the Bluejackets 19-4 to take a 27-point lead and put Mitchell in a difficult position, as they looked to comeback with just eight minutes left to play.
“We struggled to take care of the ball tonight. We struggled to have any offensive consistency That was one of our keys tonight on the board, was 32 minutes of consistency. I feel like we’ve had flashes of really good basketball this season. I don’t think we’ve done it for 32 minutes in one single game yet,” Mitchell head coach Clint Roesler said regarding some of the team’s struggles against Orleans.
“To play against teams like Brownstown, to play against teams like Orleans, you have to play for 32 minutes. You can’t take a possession off. We can’t miss an assignment. We can’t miss a read. Unfortunately, we missed way too many assignments, way too many reads tonight,” he continued.
The Bluejackets played well in the fourth, starting the quarter on a 10-0 run. Though they’d held the Bulldogs scoreless, knowing 10 points off the lead had taken nearly five minutes off the clock.
Shortly after, Orleans scored their first points of the quarter, along with a few extra baskets to secure the win, fending off Mitchell’s late-game comeback efforts.
Struggles in the third quarter, which proved to be Mitchell’s largest obstacle to overcome against Orleans, have hurt the team multiple times this season, and will be something the Bluejackets look to correct as the season continues, according to Roesler.
“You look at a bunch of first quarters, and we’re right there. And most of the time the second quarter as well, we’re right there. And then whatever it is coming out of the third quarter, they adjust to us, and we don’t adjust back,” he said.
“I said before the Brownstown game, we were -30 in the third quarter, and that’s got to stop. We can’t come out at halftime and just dig a huge hole, and that’s what we’ve done so far this year against quality opponents.”
Gavin Robinson led the Bluejackets in scoring with 18 points. Behind him were Caedon Goldsberry, with six points, Garrett Floerke with five points and Kaden Mullis with four points.
The leading scorer for the night was Alex Dewitt, who scored 22 for the Bulldogs, including 11 in the fourth quarter as they started to pull away. Dane Freed was also in double-figures for Orleans with 15 points.
Next for Mitchell, they’ll compete in the third annual Cement City Classic at The Hive. The Bluejackets enter the event having won it the first two seasons and looking to defend their championship, as well as bounce back after now suffering consecutive losses.
They will play in Pool A, alongside North Harrison and Eastern (Pekin). On the other side of the bracket in Pool B are Loogootee, West Washington and Rock Creek Academy.
‘We’ve won it the last two years, and obviously that’s the goal is to come back in and win it. We got some new teams in this year, some really quality opponents coming in with Rock Creek Academy, with Loogootee being in it, West Washington being in it, North Harrison and Pekin. So those are good quality opponents,” he said.
“So, I look for us to bounce back and see what we’ve got on Monday and Tuesday and see if we can right the ship a little bit.”
