DELAWARE – The Mount Vernon boys basketball team found itself in a situation it hasn’t seen this season. The Yellow Jackets held a 10-point lead at halftime.
But host Delaware Hayes gained its bearings, rallied and salted away a 57-51 victory in overtime in non-league play on Thursday, Feb. 18.
“We’re on the road and we have a 10-point lead at the half,” Mount Vernon coach Nick Coon said. “We really have to dig in and defend and rebound, first and foremost, to extend that lead. We didn’t do that tonight. And to be honest, we haven’t been in that position (all year) where we’ve had a 10-point lead at the half.
“So that’s a good learning experience for us. We would have liked to learn it in a win, but we just didn’t quite make enough plays in the end to get it done.”
Jesse Burris knocked down a pair of 3-pointers to cap a 14-2 start for the Pacers.
Caden Rowland came off the bench and provided a spark for Mount Vernon. He knocked down a corner 3 on one end, rebounded on the defensive end and scored underneath off his own offensive rebound through contact before converting the free throw to pull the Jackets within 14-10 at the end of the first.
The sequence started a 27-5 run for the Jackets that ended on a Dayne Burgess and-1 with 4.2 seconds left in the half to give Mount Vernon a 29-19 lead at the break.
Burris, who finished with 22 points and a pair of blocks to pace the Pacers (4-12), scored the final 11 points of the first half for his team.
The second half went decidedly differently. Burris scored seven points in the third quarter and Ryan Smudz added six points as Delaware closed within two.
Nolan Belcher found Beau Bridges for a layup in the final seconds to give the Jackets a 44-40 lead through three quarters.
Delaware opened the fourth with the first seven points of the quarter to take the lead. It was brief, as Hudson Rohler buried a 3 with 3:18 remaining to knot the score.
But MV never took the lead again.
CJ Holmes hit a pair of free throws with 2:34 left and Rohler answered with two of his own on the next possession to knot the score at 49, where it remained through the end of regulation.
A Bridges block with a little more than a second left all but sent the game to overtime.
There, Hayes got a pair of Burris free throws on its first possession to take the lead for good. The Pacers went 8 of 13 from the line in the extra frame after shooting just four free throws in regulation.
“We had a lot of energy to start,” Delaware coach Adam Vincenzo said. “We were executing and doing lots of good things. Then we kind of lost our defensive scout there for a little bit. We had a challenge at halftime, that’s for sure. But we played with more toughness in the second half.”
Smudz finished with 13 points and three steals, and Jake Lowman added 12 points and five rebounds for the Pacers.
Bridges led the Jackets (7-13) with 13 points and nine rebounds, and Burgess and Blake Meyer added 11 points apiece. Burgess had seven rebounds, two assists and two blocks, and Meyer added six rebounds and three assists.
Rohler and Rowland finished with eight points each for MV, with Rowland pulling down three rebounds and Rohler adding a couple of steals.
