Mount Vernon News

NEWARK — The Mount Vernon High School girls basketball season didn’t quite get under way as the team would have liked, despite a solid team effort. The Yellow Jackets dropped their first game of the season to Newark on the road, 42-32.

“I thought we played awfully hard,” said Mount Vernon head coach Doug Savage. “I don’t think there is any question about that. Our kids really competed hard. I don’t think we could have played any harder; we could have played better but not any harder.”

Early action was very competitive, with each team trading baskets. Newark began to take advantage of its height midway through the first quarter, and Mount Vernon had trouble stopping Wildcat post player Sarah Bennett.

“We didn’t really have an answer for keeping the ball away from her well enough,” Savage said. “She beat us quite a bit on the interior. You got to give her credit. I thought she did a nice job fundamentally on the inside. They did a good job of being patient and finding a good angle to get it in to her.”

Newark built a nine-point advantage in the later stages of the first quarter, and never relinquished the lead again, due in large part to Newark’s inside presence.

The second quarter saw the Jackets pick up the pace, and they stuck right with Newark for the rest of the game, but the Wildcats never let the Jackets any closer than five points. At halftime, the Jackets were down by the same amount of points they were in the first quarter and the teams went into the locker room with the Wildcats firmly on top, 24-15.

The second half saw the Jackets push the ball more, and keep the ball out of the hands of Newark’s interior threat, and therefore, it was a much more competitive half. At the end of the third quarter, the Jackets were down, 29-24, and looked to put a run together in the fourth and possibly steal the game. Newark had other ideas, though.

By playing the keep away game for much of the fourth quarter, the Wildcats eventually forced the Jackets’ hand, and Mount Vernon was forced to foul in order to get the ball back. Newark capitalized on its trips to the line, and Mount Vernon began to move into desperation mode. The Wildcats outlasted the Jackets and ended any attempt at a comeback.

“We took some wild shots tonight,” said Savage. “When you are behind in the fourth quarter, sometimes that’s the way things go. I don’t always think that we will have a shooting night like we had tonight. It was definitely not a good shooting night for us. We need to get our offense solidified as soon as we can.”

The Jackets were led by Sam Arcilla and Jess Gall, who each had six points in the contest. Karina Shackle added five points and three other players added four. Newark was lead by Bennett, who scored 10 points. Olivia Bybee and Chelsea Rice each had seven points.

Mount Vernon has it’s work cut out for itself as the next two games are also on the road. With the effort the team put out Tuesday night, despite it being in a losing effort, the Jackets have a positive outlook for the future.

“It was our first game of the year and it was on the road,” said Savage. “That makes it a little bit more difficult. You can’t coach effort. That is one thing we wanted to come out of here with; play with intensity and effort. We were able to do that and I think if we can keep that up all year long, we will start knocking down some shots.”

In junior varsity action the Jackets held the Wildcats scoreless in the fourth quarter and over came a 20-15 deficit to beat Newark 23-20. Mount Vernon was lead by Kelly Thompson who scored 8 points, while Jauni Gleason added 5 points and Courtney Burke scored 4 points.

Mount Vernon returns to play on Friday at New Albany. Junior varsity game time is set for 6 p.m. with the varsity to follow.