By Noah Dalton
SALEM — Mitchell High School has advanced to the second round of the Indiana 2A Sectional 46 tournament, after defeating Clarksville on Wednesday 62-49 in the opening round.
Despite eventually winning in convincing fashion, the Bluejackets found themselves trailing the Generals early.
In the first quarter, Clarksville scored eight straight to jump out to a sizable early lead, before eventually ending the quarter up 14-8.
Mitchell recovered in the second to even up the score at 18 points each midway through the quarter.
After three lead changes in the period, the Bluejackets held a five-point lead, 27-22 at halftime and never looked back, leading the game by double-digits for much of the third quarter and onward.
“I don’t want to say that we maybe took them lightly, but we did not have the intensity level that I told them we needed to play with, so once we kind of got locked into the game, we amped the pressure,” Mitchell head coach Clint Roesler said about the early stages of the game.
Roesler specifically cited rebounding as an area that he saw the team’s efforts improve as the game went along. The Bluejackets were outrebounded 14-8 in the first half, but ultimately won the category by five rebounds, 27-22 by the end of the night.
“That’s a margin that we always want to try to win in every basketball game. So, I’m glad that we got that taken care of,” he said.
The final total of 62 points scored by the Bluejackets is the most scored by the team in nearly a month, with the last time they reached that amount coming in their Feb. 10 win against Medora.
“We had a lot of contributions tonight,” he said. “The nice thing is we had a lot of people step up, in moments that we needed. This was a team win.”
In the next round, the Bluejackets will face a familiar foe in fellow Patoka Lake Athletic Conference member Paoli, who advanced after dominating Crawford County 68-36.
The Rams are unbeaten on the season, winning the PLAC championship on their way to becoming the No. 1 ranked team in Indiana’s 2A division.
The two sides matched up earlier in the season, with Paoli coming out on top 74-44 on Jan. 13.
Roesler and his team will look to avenge their previous loss in Friday’s rematch, as Mitchell will look to upset the Rams.
“We know the task at hand next round,” said Roesler, prior to Paoli’s win over Crawford County.
“We started scouting, looking at film, because we wanted to be as prepared as we could be.
We always expect to go in and win, but we don’t want to overlook anybody. So, we’ll have a plan of attack, and it’s best man wins from here on out. We’re going in thinking that’s us every game.”
