FORTVILLE — In an instant, the complexion of Friday night’s girls basketball sectional semifinal between Pendleton Heights and Mt. Vernon changed.
The host Marauders had a small lead in a back-and-forth first half. After a shot in the paint, Arabians junior Aubree Dwiggins stayed down on the court. Dwiggins, who came back from a knee injury just last week, proved tough for Mt. Vernon to slow down in the first quarter, scoring 8 points and nabbing four rebounds in just over 10 minutes of game time.
Losing Dwiggins didn’t deter the Arabians. They wouldn’t go away, fighting back from a halftime deficit to tie the game after three quarters.
The Marauders weren’t about to see their season end at home in the semifinals. An 8-0 run from Mt. Vernon to start the final quarter put the game out of reach as the defense tightened up and took over.
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For the second straight year, the Marauders eliminated the Arabians in the sectional semifinal, holding on for a 49-43 victory to advance to tonight’s 7:30 p.m. sectional final against New Palestine.
“I told them all year and I will continue to tell them, defense is the only thing that you can control,” Mt. Vernon coach Julie Shelton said. “You can’t control if you’re making your shots, you can’t control the calls, you can’t control a lot of things, how well the opponent is playing, but you can control how well you talk and play the defense that we work on every day.”
Pendleton Heights is used to playing without one of their star players — they just got relatively healthy for the first time in months less than two weeks before sectional play began — and pushed the Marauders until the final buzzer.
“I could see it in our girls. Our hearts were in it, our minds were in it, we’re focused,” Pendleton Heights coach Chad Cook said. “When Aubree goes down, I just see us get that deflated feeling. I quickly remind them that we love Aubree, but we’ve been playing this year short. We’ve fought, we’ve been tough. We’re not going to worry about that — we’re going to take what we’ve got. I think we were able to refocus and come back in that third quarter. The girls showed all kinds of resilience, and toughness. Man, it was fun to watch. You just want to end up on the top side.”
While the Arabians were dealing with losing Dwiggins, the Marauders were seeing their starters sidelined for a different reason.
“It’s unfortunate for Dwiggins that she went down. Pendleton played well, and I think they played well without her,” Shelton said. “We had a lot of adversity too, with most of our best players in foul trouble. I was very proud of us trying to hang in there and survive with defense while some of our offense wasn’t in the game. We could have panicked and fell apart a couple times, and we didn’t, and I was very proud of them for hanging in there and making it back to the finals.”
The Arabians were able to keep up with the Marauders in the first half, significantly out-shooting the hosts and making 7 of 11 shots in half. Free throws were the difference, though. The Arabians were just 7 of 15 from the foul line, while Mt. Vernon was a perfect 6 of 6.
That continued to be an issue for the Arabians. Pendleton Heights finished 11 of 21 while Mt. Vernon was 13 of 15 from the free throw line. With a six-point final margin, those missed opportunities loomed large.
“We’re not the best free throw shooting team, but we’re not that bad, either,” Cook said. “Sometimes it just doesn’t go your way. But I thought mentally, how focused we were, taking charges, executing our defense well, I thought we did just a great job. You want to be rewarded for that, you want to come out on top, but as John Wooden said, sometimes winning is not about the wins and losses but it’s about being the best that you can be. I think with things you could control, we were the best that we could be, today.”
Sydnee Perry led the way for Mt. Vernon with 15 points, eight rebounds, three steals and two assists. Lexi Shelton had 13 points for the hosts.
Megan Mills led the Arabians with 14 points and four rebounds. Kylie Davis added 10 points and two boards in the loss.
The win pushes Mt. Vernon into the sectional championship game again, a rematch from a heartbreaking loss against county rival New Palestine last year.
The Dragons won the regular-season matchup this year, 46-40, on Dec. 11.
“I’m proud of them,” Shelton said of her team. “They’ve had a great season, but they need to keep fighting and believe in themselves as much as the coaching staff believes in them.”
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Mt. Vernon 49, Pendleton Heights 43
Mt. Vernon;12;16;7;14;—;49
Pendleton;13;8;14;8;—;43
Mt. Vernon (19-5): Lexi Shelton 5 2-2 13, Abby Worley 0 4-4 4, Sydnee Perry 6 2-3 15, Lindsay Hartl 0 0-0 0, Tessa Freeman 2 3-4 7, Shay Shipley 1 0-0 2, Maddie Swingle 1 2-2 4, Olivia Yeley 2 0-0 4. Totals: 17 13-15 49.
Pendleton (14-11): Aubree Dwiggins 3 2-2 8, Kylea Lloyd 0 0-0 0, Niyah Loomis 1 2-2 4, Kailyn Graham 2 0-0 5, Kylie Davis 3 3-4 10, Leonie Wilson 0 2-10 2, Megan Mills 6 2-3 14. Totals: 15 11-21 43.
3-point goals: Mt. Vernon 2 (Perry, Shelton), Pendleton 2 (Graham, Davis).
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