MOUNT VERNON – After going almost 13 minutes without scoring in the first half, somehow — some way — the Mount Vernon girls basketball team had a chance to beat Mansfield Senior.
But the Tygers defense stood tall once again, holding the host Yellow Jackets to two free throws in the fourth quarter to hold on for a 37-28 victory in Ohio Cardinal Conference play on Saturday, Feb. 13, at The Hive.
“When you go 3 of 14 on 3s and 6 of 24 on 2s and 7 of 19 at the line, you’re not coming back against anybody,” Mount Vernon coach Doug Savage said. “I thought defensively we played well enough, considering we couldn’t get any scores to get momentum. We played well enough against them to have a pretty good chance to win the game.”
“Lately, we’ve been playing a really, really intense defense,” Mansfield coach JeVar Hudgens said. “We’ve figured out that’s the key to (our) victories, is (playing with) high intensity on defense. We create turnovers to get easy buckets.”
Eli Trace scored the first seven points of the third quarter and finished with 10 points to pace the Jackets, who trailed 30-14 in the third period before mounting their comeback.
Trace knocked down a pair of free throws, and McKenna Brokaw converted an and-1 on back-to-back possessions.
Two more free throws by Lexi Shaffer, who fed Sydney Lyons in transition off a rebound, and all a sudden Mount Vernon was within 30-23 with a little more than a minute and a half remaining in the third quarter.
Olivia Reddy found Mac Schlosser for a corner 3 with 5 seconds left in the frame to cut the deficit to 30-26.
Mansfield went into defense-mode in more ways than one in the fourth quarter. The Tygers (9-11, 8-4) took close to 2 minutes off the clock with a four-corner offense.
Stella Bainbridge scored the first point of the period with a free throw to make it 30-27 with 3:37 remaining. But the Jackets just couldn’t convert from the field, and the Tygers pulled away.
“I think (our) defensive pressure kind of died off some,” Hudgens said. “They started handling the pressure and they started matching our intensity, which shocked us. We held it together and we kept our composure when they got within three.”
Kiyan Wentz found Julia Rizzo for a basket, and Dakiyah White scored underneath off a Monetta Hilary feed two possessions later to push the lead back out to seven.
Shaffer added six points, seven rebounds and two assists for the Jackets (5-11, 4-7), who celebrated seniors Trace, Shaffer, Bainbridge and Cora Lepley in their final game at The Hive.
“All four of the seniors (are) great kids,” Savage said. “They’re good students, they’re good school citizens. I can’t say enough about the sacrifices and the commitments they’ve made for the last six years — since seventh grade. When those girls were in the seventh grade, there were 20 of them … and now there’s four that have made it all the way through the obstacle course.”
Schlosser finished with 11 rebounds and two steals; and Brokaw, who was a late addition to the lineup dealing with an injured ankle, had six rebounds and three blocks to go with three points for Mount Vernon.
Wentz led the Tygers with 11 points, six steals, three assists and three rebounds; Rizzo added nine points, 14 rebounds and three assists; Kierstan Bradley had nine points, five rebounds and a pair of steals; and White had 10 rebounds and five steals.
