SHUT DOWN: Marauders get defensive, cruise past rival Cougars

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FORTVILLE — It’s been too long. So long, in fact, that nobody on the current roster was there for it.

The date was Feb. 11, 2015. That’s the last time the Mt. Vernon girls basketball team bested county rival Greenfield-Central. The Cougars had won five straight against the Marauders since that day, eliminating them from sectionals and ending their season two of the past three years.

That was long enough for the Marauders, who hosted the Cougars for a Senior Night rivalry game Friday night.

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Mt. Vernon started each half with big runs. Abby Worley and Sydnee Perry started the game off with two 3-pointers, then did the same to start the second half, helping their team score the first eight points of each half.

The hosts didn’t look back from those fast starts. The Marauders took an 18-9 lead into the half and blew the game open in the second half, pulling away for a 48-24 win.

“It’s great. It feels good to finally just get past them,” Mt. Vernon junior Sydnee Perry said. “We kind of made a team goal to finally beat them and just give us a confidence boost to go into sectionals and feel good as a team.”

The Marauders got the early lead, and the win, in large part due to a smothering defense. The teams combined for just 10 field goals made in the first half, with Mt. Vernon going 7 of 26 and Greenfield-Central hitting just 3 of 11 shots.

The Marauders had nine first-half steals. They finished the game with 15.

“There’s a reason why they’re 16-4. That’s a really, really good basketball team,” Greenfield-Central coach Bradley Key said. “They’re well-coached. They put a lot of pressure on you on defense, and we knew that was going to be a possibility coming into the game. We talked in the locker room — we’ve got to get mentally and physically tougher to battle through that stuff.”

Defense has been a big focus for Mt. Vernon since the Christmas break. They’ve been strong on that end of the court most of the season, but Friday night was one of their most dominant performances of the year.

The Cougars, unable to find room offensively, put up just 27 shot attempts in the game, making nine.

“We’ve really, really focused the last two or three weeks, probably our last five games, on defense,” Mt. Vernon coach Julie Shelton said. “I thought we started the year off really well defensively, and then we really lost some of our defensive effort midway through the season.”

While the Cougars shot 33 percent for the game, the Marauders weren’t much better, at 39 percent.

It didn’t matter with how aggressive the defense played.

“Did we have our best offensive night? No way,” Shelton said. “But it doesn’t matter if you guard, so I was pleased with that. That’s one thing that you can control.”

The game featured the county’s two top scorers in Greenfield-Central’s Hannah Farrell and Mt. Vernon’s Lexi Shelton. Both were mostly non-factors.

Farrell finished with six points, three rebounds, an assist and a steal. Shelton played only about four minutes in the first half after picking up two fouls in the first three minutes of the game. She finished with 11 points, two rebounds and two assists.

“Tonight, they were able to focus on (Farrell) and take her out, and we need some more people to step up,” Key said. “But that’s where Mt. Vernon does a good job of not just taking away your one, but taking away your one, two, three, four.”

Lydia McIntire led the Cougars in scoring with eight points and added five rebounds. Crystal Peterson added five points, four steals and three rebounds for the visitors.

The Marauders, forced to play much of the first half without their leading scorer, had to find scoring elsewhere.

Perry led the way with 13 points, five rebounds, four steals and an assist. Worley had nine points and added six assists, two steals and a rebound. Maddie Swingle scored six off the bench and had seven rebounds, including five on the offensive end. Tessa Freeman had two points but added four steals and four assists. The team’s lone senior, Lindsay Hartl, scored two points and had three rebounds, two assists and a steal.

“It felt good to know that as a team, we can still play together and cover up for her because she’s a big scorer and we need her,” Perry said of Shelton. “And then when we work that hard to stay there, and she comes in and gives us the boost we need to kind of just get up there and not let them come back, it was a good team game.”

The win moves the Marauders record to 16-4 on the year, while Mt. Vernon falls to 8-12.

“Just a lot of kids do a lot of little things, and that’s what makes me so happy,” Julie Shelton said. “They may not get the recognition, but Lindsay Hartl plays so hard and does so many good things defensively for us. Tessa Freeman does all the little things. I’ve got a lot of great kids that will play their role and share the ball. I just think we’re buying in to team, and I’m really proud of them for that.”

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Mt. Vernon 48, Greenfield-Central 24

Greenfield-Central;5;4;10;5;—;24

Mt. Vernon;13;5;17;13;—;48

Greenfield-Central (8-12, 1-5): Hannah Farrell 2 1-3 6, Addie Hill 1 0-0 2, Crystal Peterson 2 0-1 5, Lydia McIntire 3 1-2 8, Keryna Barrett 0 1-2 1, Brooke Herrell 0 0-0 0, Kylie Rodgers 1 0-0 2, Zoe Starks 0 0-0 0. Totals: 9 3-8 24.

Mt. Vernon (16-4, 4-1): Lexi Shelton 4 2-2 11, Abby Worley 3 0-1 9, Sydnee Perry 4 1-2 13, Tessa Freeman 1 0-0 2, Lindsay Hartl 1 0-0 2, Shay Shipley 1 0-0 3, Maddie Swingle 3 0-0 6, Olivia Yeley 1 0-0 2. Totals: 18 3-5 48.

3-point goals: Greenfield-Central 3 (Farrell, Peterson, McIntire), Mt. Vernon 9 (Perry 4, Worley 3, Shelton, Shipley). Rebounds: Greenfield-Central 22 (Hill 6, McIntire 5, Farrell 3, Peterson 3, Herrell 2, Hill 2, Starks), Mt. Vernon 22 (Swingle 7, Perry 5, Hartl 3, Shelton 2, Shipley 2, Freeman, Worley, Yeley).

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