Jackets ready for Braves
MOUNT VERNON — After winning its last two games easily, the Mount Vernon High School boys basketball team is looking to continue the trend as it hits the court to kick off 2007. The Yellow Jackets, who defeated Watkins Memorial, 71-44, on Dec. 21 and then handed River View a 58-39 loss on Dec. 29, are preparing for a big weekend with road games at Olentangy and Marion Harding.
“Coming off Friday night’s win, we did a nice job of playing well as a team as we did against Watkins Memorial,” Mount Vernon coach Kurt Kaufman said. “I think it is coming. We are gradually getting better and better. We are not where we want to be, but we are continuing to work to get where we want to be.
“We’ve got a lot of good teams on our schedule and a lot of good games coming up. We are going to need everyone to step up and, not necessarily be a star, but just do what they are capable of doing — take care of the basketball and do their job. If they do that, we will be fine.”
The Olentangy Braves are up first, hosting the Jackets for an Ohio Capital Conference Cardinal Division game tonight. Olentangy is off to a 9-1 on the season, including a 3-0 mark in the OCC. Most recently, the Braves defeated Delaware on Tuesday, 74-60.
“Looking at the weekend, I like it,” said Kaufman. “It is a nice challenge for our kids to play Friday away and Saturday away. Sometimes when you put yourself in tough situations, you’ve got to come together and it makes you play well as a team. If we want to win both games, we’ve got to do that. In terms of Olentangy, they are a good team, obviously. They are 9-1 after they beat Delaware the other night. They are not a team we can’t beat or anything like that. We just have to go about doing our business, executing offensively and playing good defense — stopping their transition. If we do that we will be fine.”
The Braves, who are averaging 73.1 points a game, are led by guards John McCambridge and Nathan Balch. Through seven games, McCambridge was averaging 17.4 points and Balch, an honorable mention all-district and first-team all-OCC-Cardinal Division selection last year, was averaging 16.1. Olentangy, which has never won an OCC title in boys basketball, is allowing 60.6 points per game this season.
“I think we matchup well. With the style of play we play, they almost have to play our style,” Kaufman said. “They do look to push the ball up the floor so if we stop that, we will be fine.”
The Marion Harding Presidents are 2-5 this season heading into tonight’s game with Sandusky. The Presidents are averaging 51.3 points a game this season while allowing 57.9 points per contest. Kaufman is not concerned with Marion Harding at this time, however.
“Right now, we are focused on Friday night. We want to get a win against Olentangy and then we will look at Marion Harding,” said Kaufman. “One of the things about us is that we don’t change what we do a ton. We keep a lot of the same principles no matter who we face. It makes it nice when we play back-to-back games. We’ll tweak a few things here and there to get ready for Marion Harding, which we can do on Saturday morning.”
The Jackets’ turnaround has been spurred in large part by their senior class. As a whole, the Mount Vernon seniors are contributing over 43 points a game.
“They are taking ownership and that is real key,” Kaufman said. “We have six seniors and other people look at having six seniors and think we are a pretty veteran team. That is not really the case. We have one senior who didn’t play last year and another who played jayvee. We are relatively young and inexperienced, but we have great kids that, as the season progresses, have stepped up and assumed the leadership role. That’s been the difference the last two games.”
Both road games begin with the junior varsity contest at 6 p.m.
