INDIANAPOLIS — Mt. Vernon battled back from early deficits in both halves of Tuesday’s season-opening boys basketball game at Lawrence Central High School.
In the first half, the Marauders were able to erase a nine-point deficit to take a 24-23 halftime lead.
In the second half, they trailed by seven points with only 1:13 remaining, they got it down to one with 8.4 seconds to go, but a turnover in the last possession kept them from having a shot to tie or win the game in a 54-52 loss to the Bears.
Mt. Vernon had the effort, just too many turnovers.
The Marauders committed 23 on the night, including eight in the fourth quarter.
“They were timely, momentum killers.” Mt. Vernon head coach Joe Bradburn said in his debut leading the Marauders. “We’d make a run and get in position to take the lead a couple of times and we’d have a turnover, right there in our grasp. Even at the end we had a chance and had an errant pass.”
Down 53-46 with 1:13 remaining, Mt. Vernon scored the next six points.
Sophomore R’mani Wells hit a free throw. Julien Smith rebounded his own miss for a putback and later scored on another rebound bucket and added a free throw after a foul.
Lawrence Central missed two free throws with 6.4 seconds to go, but got the rebound. After another Mt. Vernon foul, the Bears hit the first and missed the second to give Mt. Vernon one last chance, but a long pass was intercepted by LC to end the game.
“We made too many turnovers,” Bradburn added. “We knew they were going to have pressure, change defenses. None of that stuff surprised us, but I think our guys, we can’t simulate the speed and the explosion they had in some of the passing lanes and that was a big part of what bothered us tonight.”
Down 19-10, Mt. Vernon outscored Lawrence Central 14-4 to end the first half.
When Smith hit two free throws with 57.8 remaining in the second, Mt. Vernon took its first lead, 22-21.
The Marauders led 24-23 at half, but the Bears quickly changed that to start the second half.
LC scored the first seven points of the third quarter. A steal and layup by Robert Puckett, who had a game-high 17 points, gave the Bears a 30-24 lead.
Lawrence Central led by as much as nine in the third quarter. The Bears scored 22 third-quarter points after having just 23 in the first half.
But, the Marauders kept fighting back.
Smith had nine fourth-quarter points and was co-leading scorer for the Marauders with Wells. Both had 15. Wells had 13 in the second half.
Tanner Teschendorf and Elijah Parra had 10 apiece.
Teschendorf was the lone Marauder to score in the first quarter when MV trailed 10-8. Parra had a couple of second-quarter 3s.
“We figured out some stuff about ourselves, Bradburn said. “Early in the year we talked about it stinks to lose, no matter when, but we didn’t lose any championships tonight. We learned some things and that’s the way we’re going to approach it and we’re going back at it (at practice). I appreciate our efforts and our toughness and we’re getting better.
“That’s a bigger picture to me. If we didn’t come out and give the effort I’d be in a different mindset right now. Our efforts, mindset of trying to do the right things was really solid. We have the building blocks of what we want but we have to execute better.”
Mt. Vernon returns to action Dec. 1 with a home game against Southport.
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Lawrence Central 54, Mt. Vernon 52
Mt. Vernon;8;16;14;14;—;52
Lawrence Central;10;13;22;9;—;54
Mt. Vernon (0-1): Brady Fitzgerald 0 0-0 0, Tanner Teschendorf 4 2-2 10, R’Mani Wells 5 5-7 15, Julien Smith 6 3-4 15, Elijah Parra 3 2-2 10, Aden Daugherty 0 2-4 2, Charlie Cross 0 0-0 0, Ryker Baer 0 0-0 0. Totals: 18 14-19 52.
Lawrence Central (1-0): Bryson Luter 3 0-0 7, Robert Puckett 8 0-0 17, Che Brownlow 0 0-0 0, Anthony Sowell 2 0-0 5, Albert Gooden III 1 4-7 6, Jaden Stokes 0 1-2 1, Doron Harris 2 0-0 4, Cordale Edwards 2 2-6 6, Greg Martin 2 0-0 6, Evan Ferguson 1 0-0 2. Totals: 21 7-15 54.
3-point goals: Mt. Vernon 2(Parra 2), Lawrence Central 5 (Martin 2, Luter, Puckett, Sowell)
