MOUNT VERNON – The Mount Vernon girls basketball team went into a quarantine following a win over Mansfield Madison, and the Yellow Jackets came back from a quarantine on Thursday, Jan. 28, with a win over the Rams.
McKenna Brokaw went for 14 points, eight rebounds, four steals and a pair of game-saving blocked shots in the fourth quarter to help Mount Vernon preserve a 39-38 win over Madison in Ohio Cardinal Conference play. She also took a charge down the stretch to keep the Jackets close.
Mount Vernon’s Lexi Shaffer kept her head after a pair of fourth-quarter turnovers — one off a ball that went through her hands in the left corner. The next time down, she caught the ball, dribbled baseline and found teammate Olivia Reddy for an easy layup that turned out to be the game-winner for the Jackets (5-6, 4-3) with 48 seconds remaining.
“(Lexi) had two guards on her and she made a beautiful drive to the basket and a beautiful pass,” Reddy said. “I was just there to finish.”
Coming back from their second quarantine, Mount Vernon coach Doug Savage could tell his team was ready to go.
“I don’t (know) whether the kids missed more than they thought they would miss it,” he said. “Sometimes you never know how good something is until you don’t have. It’s human nature. But they came back and had three of the best practices we’ve ever had. I mean, it was really good. They were excited to be here again.”
“Not practicing a lot has been difficult,” Reddy said. “But when we’ve been here, we’ve worked really hard and we were able to get back where we left off. We just go out and try our best, and it’s been working for us.”
The Jackets were quarantined for a second time the day after beating Madison 51-44 in Mansfield.
The Rams, too, know something about quarantines. This was just their fifth game and second league contest.
“The past 56 days, I think we’ve had four practices and three games,” Madison coach Brian Davis said. “I just told them to play it like a summer league. Just come out and scrap and get better because obviously we’re not gonna have much time to put an offense together.
Madison, which also played Tuesday, Jan. 26, has seven more games on the docket now until Feb. 11, all OCC games — two games each against Mansfield Senior, Wooster and West Holmes; and a game against Lexington. The sectional tournament takes place from Feb. 8-20.
“There’s nothing even to say,” Davis said about the season. “The girls are so mentally drained. Coming back ... you can’t put it into words. There’s nothing you can say. I just feel horrible for the girls.”
Stella Bainbridge hit a pair of 3-pointers and scored eight points. She added eight rebounds and a pair of assists to back Brokaw for the Jackets.
Reddy finished with seven points, three rebounds and a couple of assists; and Shaffer had five rebounds for Mount Vernon, which led 24-21 at the half.
Chesney Davis, who led the Rams (1-4, 0-2) with 17 points, three rebounds and three steals, made a free throw to give Madison a one-point lead with 1:02 remaining.
Faith Kuhn scored eight of her 12 points in the second half for Madison. She also grabbed six rebounds.
