By Noah Dalton
MITCHELL — In their final regular season game of the year, Mitchell High School snapped a five-game losing streak on Tuesday, beating Shoals 59-45 in the first game back at The Hive since Feb. 10.
The game served as Senior Night for the Bluejackets, with the team honoring their four senior members: Gavin Robinson, Parker Felton, Caedon Goldsberry and Jayden Zapeda.
The win over the Jug-Rox was a meaningful one for the team, according to Mitchell head coach Clint Roesler.
Not only to close out their regular season on a positive note after a tough stretch of games, but to also give those players, who he said were like family to him, a proper send off.
“We’ve had some ups and downs, but what makes us family is we always come together at the end of the day and we’re always there for one another,” he said.
“I love these guys. I love every player that I coach, even when I’m frustrated with them, just because I know how much they can do and I believe in them.
These four guys, they mean a lot to me and they’re going to continue to mean a lot to me as I watch them succeed in life after high school and have a quality group of four kids that are going to do a lot of good things after high school.”
The Bluejackets controlled the game early against Shoals, taking an early lead and extending it throughout the first half.
By the end of the second quarter, Mitchell were up by 17 points, 30-13, and looked poised to cruise to a dominant win.
“We kept attacking. We got them into foul trouble and got them flustered and frustrated, obviously. And all that is a recipe for how we want to play,” said Roesler.
I knew we could use our physicality to our advantage against them and we stayed aggressive from start to finish, attacking the basket. And, some guys hit some shots tonight, and that’s nice to see.”
Things began to slip for them in the third, with the Jug-Rox starting the period on a 13-2 run to cut the lead down to six points, holding the Bluejackets without a made basket for nearly four minutes.
That was the closest the game got, with Mitchell settling back into a rhythm from that point on, before ultimately winning by double-digits.
Robinson led all scorers for the night with 25 points. Also getting into the mix for the Bluejackets were Kaden Mullis (10 points), Parker Felton (eight points), and the duo of Goldsberry and Blake King, who each scored six points.
Leading the way for the Jug-Rox was Owen Turpin, with 12 points. Rator Hoffman was just behind him with nine points and Lucas Jordan and Kyle Winniger, who each scored seven points.
Mitchell’s opening-round sectional matchup will take place on March 4, where they’ll take on Clarksville with games for the tournament hosted at Salem. Tip-off is set for 6 p.m.
Roesler hopes the win over Shoals will give the team some much needed momentum heading into the tournament, with a tough potential second round matchup on the horizon against the winner between Crawford County and unbeaten favorites Paoli, who enter the event as the #1 ranked team in Indiana’s 2A division.
He said the coaching staff began requesting film and scouting the Generals as soon as the draw was announced on Sunday, looking to prepare the team to pick up the win.
“I feel really confident that our guys have grown to be able to really follow a scouting report to a T and that will help us going into the tournament. Plus, the fact that we got a little bit of momentum here coming off of a win,” said Roesler.
“I look forward to seeing what we can do on Wednesday and hopefully we can continue to extend the season as much as possible.”
