By Noah Dalton
NASHVILLE — After falling behind early, Mitchell High School were nearly successful in a second-half comeback against Brown County, l ultimately falling short 51-46 by the final buzzer.
The Bluejackets, playing without injured top-scorer Gavin Robinson, found themselves down by nine at the end of the first quarter, 16-7 after the Eagles closed the period scoring 14 unanswered points.
“You can tell that we were a little uncomfortable. I mean, you’re used to playing with a guy that you know can get a bucket almost any time he wants. The offense felt a little bit clunky,” Mitchell head coach Clint Roesler said of the start to the game.
That run kept them ahead through the end of the first half with an eight point lead, though Mitchell managed at one point to reduce the lead down to five, 25-20 after an 8-0 run of their own in the period.
The two sides traded evenly until the fourth, when a 12-3 run capped by a shot inside from Blake King, to start the period helped them grab the lead, 46-44, with just under 5 minutes remaining. The lead was the Bluejackets’ first since the beginning of the first quarter.
“We discussed before the game that we’re going to win this. We got to win this as a team.And I thought the way we shared the ball was terrific tonight,” said Roesler
“The defensive pressure, our rebounding, and pushing up in transition was very good tonight.
We got to continue to do those things.”
From that basket on, Brown County held Mitchell without another basket, retaking the lead with 1:50 seconds left on the clock after baskets from Cash Harden and Logan Sallee, on their way to the eventual victory.
Though they weren’t able to keep that momentum to close out the win, Roesler thought the way his undermanned team played was encouraging for their upcoming games.
“[Brown County] is a big, athletic team and if we can show that we can rebound against them pretty well, outside of a few possessions here or there, we’ve got a good thing going,” Roesler said.
“So, credit to our guys for fighting for that. Just a few things a little different here and there down the stretch. We hit a couple layups, we hit a couple free throws. You never know what happens towards the end.”
In the absence of Robinson, Kaden Mullis stepped up as the leading scorer for the Bluejackets with 17 points. Behind him were Jayden Zapeda and King with six points each and the trio of Parker Felton, Gavin Martin and Kelan Endris, who each added five points.
Harden led all scorers on the night with 22 points. Quentin Bell also finished in double-figures for the Eagles with 12 points.
Despite the result, Roesler was happy with the way his team competed without Robinson, who has been the team’s top performer throughout the season.
“I feel better about this game than I do winning against Medora, for the simple fact that I thought we executed all the way through,” said Roesler.
“Did we make mistakes? Of course. Did we miss shots? Of course. But I just felt better about our energy. I felt better about our execution,” he continued.
Next for Mitchell is their final conference game against Perry Central on Tuesday, a make-up of a previously scheduled game postponed by the winter weather. Varsity is set for an 8 p.m. local tip-off time.
