HOWARD – Mount Vernon girls basketball coach Doug Savage felt like the team did everything they could to avoid a shutdown. Still, the Yellow Jackets were sidelined for two weeks because of COVID-19 protocols.
When the team finally returned to action, they were able to kick off the rust and rally in the second half to a 59-50 victory at East Knox in non-league play on Tuesday, Dec. 29.
Still without two players in their normal rotation in Lexi Shaffer and Sydney Lyons, others stepped up to fill the void.
“The last two weeks have been very, very frustrating,” Savage said. “We feel like we’ve been taking all of the precautions and yet we still had four girls come down with COVID. When we’ve had those girls and they’ve practiced, they had shown no signs or symptoms of it. But then we get a call a day or two later.
“I just don’t want parents or anybody to think that we’re just slopping around doing whatever we want, because we’re not. We are trying to take every appropriate protocol to make sure the kids don’t get (the coronavirus).”
Emilee Burke led all scorers with 17 points and added three rebounds. Burke scored 12 of her points in the second half, including eight in the final period as the Jackets (2-3) pulled away.
“I guess I just gained more confidence as the game went on,” Burke said.
Savage always thought Burke was capable of putting together this kind of performance.
“She was a ball girl for us as a young girl and she would get in some of the drills with us,” he said. “You could see that she had a lot of ability even as a young girl. She’s been up here since her freshman year and she’s now in her junior year. We’ve been waiting for her to take off like this.”
Burke scored six points during a 14-3 run to help Mount Vernon push the lead to as many as 12 in the fourth quarter.
“She’s strong, she’s fast, she can shoot the 3 (and) she can drive to the basket,” Savage said. “She has a lot of the components you need to be a good player. (Against East Knox) it showed. We needed it and it showed.”
Eli Trace scored 10 of her 12 points in the second half and added a pair of assists; McKenna Brokaw finished with 11 points, seven rebounds and two steals; and Olivia Reddy filled up the stat sheet with 10 points, seven rebounds and four assists for MV.
The Jackets got six rebounds out of Addi Christopher; and Stella Bainbridge had five rebounds, two steals and a pair of assists.
Madi Annett led the Bulldogs (4-5) with 16 points, seven rebounds, five steals and a pair of helpers; and Shanda Melick had a double-double with 13 points and 11 rebounds.
“They just outplayed us,” East Knox coach Chip Pozderac said. “Yeah, they’re Division I and we’re Division IV, but that was a winnable ballgame for us. The kids were tired, I don’t know. I could blame a lot of things, but (Mount Vernon) just wanted it more.”
Alexandria Magers chipped in eight points, three assists and two steals; Laura Keith had six points on a pair of 3s, blocked five shots and added five boards and a couple of assists; and Joci Totten had five points, four boards and four thefts for East Knox; which led 10-6 after one quarter before falling behind 17-16 at the break.
