CARMEL — A close loss and having a starter go down with an injury didn’t derail Mt. Vernon’s boys basketball team’s performance at last weekend’s Charlie Hughes Showcase at Carmel High School.
Suffering a 68-64 loss to a strong Crispus Attucks team in their showcase opener on Saturday, and having 6-6 senior post player Tyler Davis out for the rest of the weekend with an ankle injury, the Marauders bounced back by winning their final three games.
Mt. Vernon handled Portage, a 15-win team a year ago, 74-40, came from behind to defeat Zionsville, 55-46, and finished the weekend off with a 63-28 victory over Valparaiso, which was without Division I point guard Jack Smiley.
Head coach Joe Bradburn was pleased with his team’s performance in the final games of the offseason.
“I thought they competed extremely hard all the way through the summer,” Bradburn said. “The technique and fundamental things we’ll get back to during the season, but (I liked) the approach, team chemistry and bonding. We get to the final weekend of competition against four quality opponents, they all challenged us in different ways and our guys responded.”
Without Davis, lone graduate from last year’s 15-9 team Brady Fitzgerald and two players — all-state guard Julien Smith and R’Mani Wells — that transferred to Cathedral, the Marauders showed they still have an incredibly deep roster.
Junior point guard Luke Ertel —who has picked up Division I offers this summer from Butler, Kent State and Toledo to go with an offer from UAB — shooting guard Elijah Parra and guard/forward Tanner Teschendorf are the team’s top returning scorers and most veteran players from last season.
Forward Aden Daugherty, who started some games last season got the starting nod at Carmel. Sophomore post Max Vise, another 6-6 player, was the starter for the final three games of the weekend. Added depth comes from veteran guard Charlie Cross and some newcomers that impressed over the weekend.
Sebastian Sprague, who missed most of last season after heart surgery, and junior varsity players Jack Guerre and Will Jones all had solid outings.
Sprague, who came back from surgery to be a track and field state qualifier in two events, had eight points in the win over Zionsville. He showed the speed and athleticism that led to his stellar track and field season. Guerre scored seven points in the win over Valparaiso. Jones gave the Marauders more depth at the guard position and showed quickness and ability to get to the rim and set up teammates.
“We went 10 deep this summer and have a variety of ways we can approach games,” Bradburn said. “We need to learn how to use all of our strengths so it’s hard for people to guard us. We have 10 guys that can contribute.
The Marauders opened with a tough loss to an Attucks squad that is expected to be one of the top teams in Class 3A. Like New Palestine and Cathedral, Attucks moves down after playing last year in Class 4A.
“Attucks was a tight, physical, quick game and I thought we competed well and learned a lot about ourselves in tight situations,” Bradburn added. “(Sunday) I thought we calmed down and settled some things down and controlled what we wanted to control and set the tone.”
In Sunday’s opener against Zionsville, Mt. Vernon was down 19-12 late in the first half. It finished the second quarter strong and took the momentum into the final two periods.
Ertel scored to cut it to five points with 1:03 to go and he later found Parra for a 3-pointer to cut it to 19-17 with 30 seconds to go until halftime.
After Zionsville scored the first bucket of the third quarter, Mt. Vernon went on a 7-2 run to take a 24-22 lead. Parra, who had a three-pointer in each quarter, gave the Marauders the lead 25-24 with 6:06 to go.
It was a back-and-forth period. Following a dunk from Zionsville’s 6-5 Drew Snively that broke a 25-25 tie, Ertel went on his own 7-0 run and showed his versatility.
He scored after an offensive rebound, hit one of his smooth in the lane floaters and finished the run with a trey to give Mt. Vernon a 32-27 lead. To end the quarter he found Sprague for a layup and 34-29 advantage.
Daugherty scored the first bucket of the fourth quarter and Sprague followed with a steal for two more to extend the lead to 38-31 with seven minutes to go.
Ertel scored 17 points. Parra had 14. Following Sprague’s eight, Daugherty finished with seven.
Against Valparaiso, it was Teschendorf’s turn to shine. His 12 first-quarter points helped the Marauders secure a 16-6 first-period lead.
He added three more in the second and Ertel contributed nine second-quarter points to get Mt. Vernon out to a 34-10 halftime advantage.
Teschendorf hit two 3-pointers, a different element to his game after hitting five on 15 attempts last season.
The bench did most of the second-half work, getting scoring from Sprague, Cross, and Guerre. All nine Marauders that played scored at least one field goal.
Teschendorf finished with a game-high 20 and Ertel added 19 points.
