By Rich Torres | Daily Reporter
FORTVILLE — For around 10 minutes on Tuesday night, the unranked Class 4A Mt. Vernon Marauders had the fifth-ranked Westfield Shamrocks right where they wanted them.
Turning an early six-point deficit into a pair of first-quarter ties and a 17-13 lead heading into the second, Mt. Vernon led the unbeaten Shamrocks three times before halftime.
Then, the lull hit, and it ran a bit too deep as the Shamrocks rolled to a 63-51 win.
Westfield (8-0) put together a tail-end, two-minute 7-1 run to take a 32-26 halftime lead and opened the second half with an 11-0 run to eventually increase its margin by a game-high 17 points en route to victory.
“They’re a good team, but I didn’t think we played as well as we could right from the tip. We never really got into a rhythm at the beginning of the game,” Mt. Vernon head coach Ben Rhoades said. “Overall, we never got into a flow offensively.”
The Marauders (4-2) struggled to match their 17-point first quarter, shooting 50 percent from the field through the first eight minutes before settling for 42 percent overall.
Westfield converted at 55 percent from the floor for the game, and produced 19 points twice — both in the second and third quarters.
“Westfield had five guys who could score and had some guys, who maybe don’t score as much sometimes, do so,” Rhoades said. “They had a good game plan for us defensively, and a couple of things didn’t go our way offensively early in the game, and we can’t let that impact us.”
Foul trouble in the first quarter slowed Amhad Jarrard, which neutralized one of the Marauders’ primary scoring threats as the Shamrocks fired out to a 43-26 lead by midway in the third.
Cam Haffner scored a game-high 24 points on 10 of 17 shooting for the Shamrocks, followed by 14 points from both junior standout Braden Smith and Nic DePasquale.
Westfield buried 8 of 18 3-pointers with six coming from Haffner and Smith, who is getting looks from Montana and Toledo, among others.
Smith finished with seven assists while pouring in 12 first-half points. Haffner had eight points in the first half. He scored 12 of the Shamrocks’ 19 points in the third quarter.
“That’s a good player. That’s why (Smith is) getting the looks he is. If his offense isn’t going, a great player makes his teammates great. Tonight, he did,” Rhoades said.
“I thought they were a little bit more of a cohesive group, and our guys played as hard as they could. I’m proud of what we can do, but I don’t think anyone who just walked out of that locker room is happy.”
The Marauders recently came off a 25-day layoff due to various COVID-19 contact tracing quarantines for their opponents, which postponed a handful of contests.
On Dec. 30, the Marauders returned to the floor for the first time since Dec. 5, defeating Hoosier Heritage Conference foe New Castle at home 74-60. Westfield’s victory halted Mt. Vernon’s winning streak at four games.
“Honestly, I think the break might have been a good thing for us to get us refocused. We came out and played pretty good at first,” Mt. Vernon sophomore Eli Bridenthal said. “They’re a great team, but I think we’re a great team, too. Honestly, I feel like if we put in a little bit more effort, we might have came out on top.”
Despite trailing 47-30 late in the third quarter, the Marauders charged back to cut the deficit to six points with 3:25 remaining in the fourth behind a Bridenthal 3-pointer.
Bridenthal scored a team-high 13 points off the bench, going 3-for-4 from 3-point range. Razhaun Wells had 11 points as a reserve.
“That’s a good thing about our team. Most teams will just quit once they’re down that far, but not us,” Bridenthal said. “We’re all about bringing the energy. That’s all you can do, coming off the bench, bring the energy.”
Armon Jarrard had eight points, Avery Williams Jr. added seven points, while Amhad Jarrard posted five points and Chris Hays finished with four.
A DePasquale layup and a Smith breakaway bucket off a Marauders’ turnover late in the fourth quarter pushed the Shamrocks’ lead back up to 59-49 and a pair of Haffner jumpers kept the Marauders at bay.
“We had a good stretch at the end of the third and into the fourth, got it down to six, but you know what, it comes down to getting the defensive stops after you score,” Rhoades said.
“If you’re going to be a team that competes and wins championships, you don’t play in waves. You have a steady game. It’s not up and down depending on who is on the floor or depending on who makes a shot or makes a stop. If you’re going to be a championship-caliber team like we want to be, we’re going to have to eliminate the dips that we had in the game tonight.”
The Marauders (1-0 HHC) will have a chance to bounce back on Friday night during their third-straight home game against rival Greenfield-Central (6-4, 1-1 HHC). Mt. Vernon travels to Whiteland on Saturday for a back-to-back weekend.
Last year, the Greenfield-Central Cougars beat the Marauders 44-39.
“I’ve already flipped the page already (from this game). I’m focused on Greenfield,” Bridenthal said. “We want that one a lot. They embarrassed us last time, and we don’t want to let that happen again. We’re going to come out refocused and give them a good 32 minutes.”
