Jackets topple Wildcats

MOUNT VERNON — After coming off two losses on the road, the Mount Vernon High School girls basketball team returned to “The Hive” and defeated Hilliard Davidson, 55-52, on Thursday night. The Yellow Jackets got off to a slow start trailing 9-5 at the end of the first quarter, and 22-18 at the end of the first half. Mount Vernon head coach Doug Savage had no choice but to challenge his girls once in the locker room.

“We just challenged the kids, challenged those seniors to step up and challenged Summer Swetlic individually and Rachel Buirley and some of the other girls that had good second halves,” Savage said. “We challenged them and said, ‘Hey, if you want to do anything, you have to shoot the basketball for us. Chances are you are going to make the shot and if you don’t, so be it.’ The way it was going down here in the first quarter, we weren’t even getting any shots off. I thought we played a heck of a second half tonight.”

Swetlic led Mount Vernon’s offense scoring with 20 points shooting 11-of-12 from the free-throw line after scoring only two points in the first half.

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“The first quarter out for some reason she was reluctant to take her shots so therefore we struggled and only scored five points in the first quarter. We had several turnovers and I thought she had some opportunities to take some shots earlier in the game, but for some reason or another didn’t want to take a look at the basket,” Savage said.

Defensively, the Yellow Jackets held the Wildcats’ Carmen Reynolds to 12 points.

“Everybody really played solid in the second half. We got some nice stops,” said Savage. “Overall, I thought we did a nice job on Reynolds, their outstanding No. 33 player. I thought we did a good job with her and held her to 12 points and made her work for all 12 of those.”

As a team, Mount Vernon shot 25-of-34 from the free-throw line, making 20 in the second half. Rachel Buirley stepped up big in the second half, contributing with nine points.

“There was more than just Summer. There was other girls that made some nice contributions. I thought Caroline Denzer made three or four real nice passes for assists and the people that were able to score for us. Brittany Seese played in the post a little bit for us. (Lauren) Hollis had a really nice game. There was a lot of team contributions to get this win,” Savage said.

In the junior varsity game, Mount Vernon beat Hilliard Davidson, 50-48. Leading scorers for the Yellow Jackets were Christine Herald with 10, and Nikki Diguilio with nine. For the Wildcats, Abbey Parsley scored 13, and Ashton Krajewski added eight.

“We have played two really good teams in a row,” said Savage. “Marion Harding was undefeated and really had some big post players that were really outmatching us physically on the interior and the same thing with Pickerington Central. Both of them being on the road, I thought that made it tougher, but we got to come back home and play Hilliard Davidson. I know their record is not that good, but the competition they have been playing is outstanding. Having Reynolds and some of the ball handlers they have at the guard spots we knew it was going to be a tough game and it was. Right now, we are just trying to play one game at a time and that was a good win for us.”

Mount Vernon hosts Lancaster on Thursday with a junior varsity tip-off set for 6 p.m.