MOUNT VERNON — This season has been one of near misses for the Mount Vernon High School boys basketball team. With 13 losses by an average of 7.8 points, the Yellow Jackets haven’t gone down without a fight. Both of those trends continued Friday night at “The Hive.”
The league-leading Dublin Jerome Celtics came to town with an opportunity to win the Ohio Capital Conference Cardinal Division outright, but Mount Vernon didn’t back down. Instead, the Jackets rose to the challenge, taking everything the Celtics could throw at them for nearly three quarters. Unfortunately, Dublin Jerome proved to be too tough on the defensive end, and held off the pesky Jackets for a 74-61 victory.
“It is not like we were playing some scrappy opponent tonight. We were playing the league champions, and they are a well-deserved league champion,” said Mount Vernon coach Kurt Kaufman. “This is a tough league. Give credit to those guys. They executed when they needed to execute. As far as our guys, we were playing hard. I thought we had a good game plan. We got the ball inside. We missed some bunnies, but that’s just the way it goes. They had a run in the first half and we countered their run. In the second half, they had another run and we didn’t counter it. Good teams will do that.”
With the win, Dublin Jerome finished 8-2 in the league under first-year head coach — and former Johnstown coach — Joe Bline. This is Bline’s fourth league title in five years, but the Celtics’ first after finishing near the bottom of the OCC a year ago.
“This is a great thing,” said Bline of the OCC title. “The great thing about where we are is we have great facilities, great administration that supports and we’ve got great kids. We’ve got a real strong future ahead of us.”
Friday’s game was tough from the start. Ben Severns kept the Jackets in the game by scoring nine of the first 11 Mount Vernon points, matching the Celtics’ Tim Brady. Brady scored eight of Jerome’s first 11 points. The Celtics led 11-7 before a three-point play by Severns ignited an 11-2 Mount Vernon run. That left the Jackets up by five, 18-13, with 10 seconds left. Steven Harrell hit a jumper at the buzzer, however, cutting it to three after one.
That late bucket proved to be just the start of something for the Celtics, who ran off 13 straight points in the first 2 1/2 minutes of the second quarter. Steven Couche and Tyler Rosenbaum proved lethal, hitting 3-points in the stretch. Even after T.T. Crouch nailed a 3-pointer to get the Jackets on the board, Dublin Jerome had an answer. A three-point play by Neil Johnson kept the deficit at 10, 31-21, with four minutes to go.
“We had to pick up the intensity a little bit,” said Bline. “Whenever you are on the road, the home team is going to get a spurt out of the gate. We just had to weather the storm and try to run our offense.”
Mount Vernon whittled away at the lead, though, carving it down to three with 1:17 to go. A jumper by Harrell put Dublin Jerome up by five, 33-28, at halftime.
The Celtics struck first to open the third quarter, but a 9-2 run by the Jackets tied the game at 37 with 4:23 on the clock. Following a Jerome timeout, the Celtics managed to outscore the Jackets, 12-5, over the next three minutes to re-open a seven-point advantage. Cuy Sheffield found Stephen Bien open for a layup, ending the quarter where it started — a five-point game, 49-44.
The decisive turn of events unfolded in the fourth quarter when Jerome put together a 13-4 spurt in the first five minutes. That run gave the Celtics a 14-points lead, 62-48, and despite repeated attempts, the Jackets had trouble cutting it down. Mount Vernon did manage to get within eight with a minute and a half to play, but 6-of-8 shooting at the free-throw line sealed Jerome’s 74-61 win.
“I think our defensive pressure eventually wore them down a little bit,” said Bline. “I give Mount Vernon a lot of credit. They are a great team. They are well coached and real solid. We’re happy to get the win. We knew it would be a tight ball game.”
“Our guys got it back to an eight-point game with the basketball,” said Kaufman. “Our guys continued to battle.”
Brady scored a game-high 30 points for the Celtics, including a 13-of-16 performance at the line. Couche chipped in 14 points, three steals and seven assists; and Rosenbaum had 10 points.
“We have real tough kids. All of our games this year have been pretty tight so our kids know what to do. They react well under pressure,” said Bline.
Severns scored 23 points to lead the Jackets. Senior Matt Dusenberry, making his last appearance on his home court, had 12 points and seven rebounds. Fellow senior Drew Cheek had eight points and four rebounds.
“I told our guys, “This is basketball. It is wins and losses, but it is so much more. When you get down to it, it is about being a leader; it is about serving your community; it is about being a teammate; it is about working hard and having discipline,’” said Kaufman. “Those (seniors) are rock solid. They’ve carried the torch and done a nice job.”
In reserve action, Mount Vernon used sharp free-throw shooting to pick up a 57-50 victory. The Jackets (15-4) were 31-of-42 for the game, including 20-of-24 in the fourth quarter. Craig Drews went 8-of-8 in the final frame; Chris Ingersol was 6-of-6; and Michael Hedrick went 2-of-2. Ben Hoar led Mount Vernon scorers with 13 points. Drews finished with 12.
Mount Vernon closes out the regular season tonight with a road game at New Albany. The game between Jackets and the Eagles will be a preview of a new league rivalry that begins next season. Tip-off is set for 6 p.m.
“We want to play well and finish our season on a high note,” said Kaufman. “Things change a lot from year to year. We’re going to go in there and play hard, and treat it like any other game. It is definitely a game we want to win.”