Mt. Vernon’s Julien Smith passes the ball against New Castle. On Thursday he led Mt. Vernon with 19 points in a win over Avon.
Tom Russo | Daily Reporter
AVON — The Mt. Vernon boys basketball team has played a tough schedule, and everyone involved in the program knows that.
They also know that there’s a reason for it, they’ve just been waiting for it to pay off.
On Thursday night, it finally did.
The Marauders (7-6) went on the road and defeated Avon (10-4) 54-48. The Orioles were coming off of a win over Class 3A No. 2 Danville to claim their first Hendricks County title in 10 years.
“They’re a quality team, and they’re county champs over here for a reason. I’m extremely proud of our guys because it was a total team effort tonight. Everybody played their part, and it was a great bounce-back effort from last week,” Mt. Vernon head coach Joe Bradburn said.
“When you look at our schedule, I don’t care what everybody has listed for strength of schedule. I know that we’ve played a very tough schedule and have played ranked opponents night in and night out. We’ve battled through some adversity here lately, and we’ve stayed together. We’re getting better, getting stronger, and this was a tough win.”
Mt. Vernon trailed just three times all night, and each time answered immediately to retake the lead.
After Avon scored the first basket of the game, the Marauders reeled off a 10-0 run sparked by 3-pointers from Julien Smith and Brady Fitzgerald and capped off by a R’mani Wells dunk.
“Brady took on the task of taking on their leading scorer as he’s done many games for us, but that led to his offense tonight. He hit some 3s early that took some pressure off of Julien and allowed him to find some penetration lanes,” Bradburn said. “We started working it in and out better tonight too, and it was just a more well-rounded attack and that gave us the chance to beat a very good team.”
Another Fitzgerald trey later in the quarter pushed the lead to double digits, 15-5, before the Orioles stormed back.
Consecutive DeAndre Lott-Hancock 3-pointers brought the lead down to four, and a Kendrick Dunmore dunk just before the buzzer extended the Avon run to eight over the closing moments of the first period.
They matched the Mt. Vernon 10-0 run after Lott-Hancock scored to open the second quarter to tie it at 15.
Six straight Smith points put the Marauders back in front, but late baskets by the Orioles evened it at 24 before the break.
“More than Julien’s scoring tonight, he led, he controlled tempo, and he controlled the team,” Bradburn said. “He communicates with all his teammates and me on the sideline. Those are the things that you want to see after the schedule that we’ve played.”
Avon’s second lead of the game came early in the third quarter after a Rashod Bethley 3-pointer made it 27-26 in favor of the Orioles.
But the guy who sparked Mt. Vernon’s first-quarter run — Fitzgerald — was there to spark another scoring run.
He scored to put Mt. Vernon back in front momentarily, and after a Lott-Hancock basket and free throw made it 38-36, he converted on a four-point play to put the Marauders ahead for good. The basket was his fourth 3-pointer on a night where he finished with 16 points.
“The thing that isn’t noticed by many people is the leadership that Brady shows on the court. He’s in tune like another coach on the floor. We’ve connected extremely well as the season has progressed,” Bradburn said. “He’s playing tough on top of thinking the game and having a high basketball IQ. He made that tough play, but then immediately came back and started to think about how we needed to guard our opponent. He had a complete overall game tonight that was probably his best of the year.”
A Smith layup and a pair of Wells free throws capped off an 8-0 Mt. Vernon run that helped give the Marauders a six-point cushion entering the final quarter.
The Orioles trimmed the lead to a basket twice over the final eight minutes, but each time Tanner Teschendorf was there to answer.
A tough layup with a minute left made it a four-point game, and Elijah Parra and Wells hit free throws down the stretch to seal the win.
Smith led Mt. Vernon with 19 points, and after Fitzgerald’s 16, Teschendorf and Wells each had six.
Mt. Vernon hosts Marion tonight with tipoff scheduled for 7:30 p.m.
–
Mt. Vernon 54, Avon 48
Mt. Vernon;15;9;18;12—;54
Avon;13;11;12;12;—;48
Mt. Vernon (7-6): Julien Smith 7 4-6 19, Elijah Parra 0 3-4 3, Tanner Teschendorf 3 0-0 6, R’mani Wells 1 4-4 6, Brady Fitzgerald 5 2-3 16, Aden Daugherty 2 0-0 4. Totals: 18 13-17 54.
Avon (10-4): Jedidiah Minnett 4 2-2 12, DeAndre Lott-Hancock 7 3-5 19, Kendrick Dunmore 2 1-5 5, Rashod Bethley 5 0-0 12, Rohan Pearson 0 0-0 0, Isaac Kramer 0 0-0 0. Totals: 18 6-12 48.
3-point goals: Mt. Vernon 5 (Fitzgerald 4, Smith 1); Avon 6 (Minnett 2, Lott-Hancock 2, Bethley 2).
