MOUNT VERNON — The Mount Vernon High School girls basketball team picked up its first win in the Ohio Capital Conference Cardinal Division against Dublin Jerome on Tuesday, winning 66-39. The Yellow Jackets are 3-0 overall and 1-0 in the OCC; Jerome is 0-3 overall and 0-1 in the conference.
Mount Vernon had a great first half, scoring 46 points and holding Jerome to only 16. The Yellow Jackets ran up and down the floor against the Celtics, scoring easy layups and kicking the ball out to the wings for an open shot.
“They actually pressed the first half quite a bit,” said Mount Vernon head coach Doug Savage. “We shredded it the first half and we were able to break their press, get the ball in the middle of the floor and attack it. Then we finished it with layups and all different types of scores at the other end.”
Mount Vernon hit 4-of-9 3-pointers and 15-of-31 two-point field goals in the first half. The Celtics couldn’t get their offense going, and their defense couldn’t stop the Yellow Jackets’ scoring run.
“That was the best our press offense had looked, I’d say up to this point in the first half,” said Savage. “A lot of that came off of our press offense and some of the other scores came off our secondary fast break.”
Mount Vernon kept the momentum throughout the second quarter. Sophomore Paige Wagner hit a buzzer-beating 3-pointer to end the half.
“All in all, the first half, we played as good as we could play in the first half,” said Savage.
Jerome came out in the third quarter with more intensity, outscoring the Yellow Jackets, 14-10. Mount Vernon had trouble breaking Jerome’s press and turned the ball over 18 times in the second half. The first half, the Yellow Jackets only committed five turnovers. The momentum shift came after a missed layup by senior Brittany Seese on a fast break.
“Early in the third quarter, we had a chance on a touchdown pass to Britty (Seese), but we threw a long ball, she took it down and she missed a layup,” said Savage. “Then after that we struggled to get the momentum going. In basketball, if you lose your momentum like we did, it just kind of snowballs and bad stuff starts happening. They were able to hit a few shots on us, so, consequently, we didn’t look as good in the second half as we did the first half.”
However, with a 26-point deficit, Dublin Jerome ran out of time to catch Mount Vernon, and fell in its first OCC match of the season.
Jamie Banks led the Celtics with 15 points and 11 rebounds. Dublin Jerome was 14-of-41 from the floor and only 1-of-8 from behind the arc.
For Mount Vernon, senior post Lauren Hollis finished with 10 points, 10 rebounds, two steals and one block. Taryn Gallup led the team in scoring with 14 points, and tacked on three rebounds and two steals. Senior guard Summer Swetlic contributed 12 points, nine assists, four steals and two rebounds. Seese chipped in with eight points, five rebounds, four assists, three steals and one block.
Mount Vernon (3-0) also took the junior varsity game, winning 50-24. Caroline Caldwell scored 14 points and Jess Gall added 10 to lead Mount Vernon. Sophomore Paige Wagner added nine points.
The Yellow Jackets go on the road for their next OCC game with Westerville South on Friday at 6 p.m.
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