GREENFIELD — The pressure isn’t going anywhere, but the Class 4A No. 8 Mt. Vernon Marauders refuse to slow down.
A team grounded in lifelong familiarity and cemented in fundamentals, the Marauders played their game on Friday night, and it resulted in an easy 53-31 victory over rival Greenfield-Central to push their winning streak to 19 straight.
When the Greenfield-Central Cougars tried to bottle up the tempo, the Marauders simply stayed patient. When the Cougars attempted to blanket Mt. Vernon’s leading scorer Lexi Shelton, the Marauders turned to the open player.
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The Marauders have been unstoppable since their last loss on Nov. 9, and despite only digging roughly six deep into their roster, the pieces fit perfectly.
Shelton, who was averaging 15.8 points per game before the game, scored a game-high 24 points off 9-of-13 shooting and 6-of-10 converted 3-pointers.
Sydnee Perry shot 5-for-9 from the floor for 12 points, and Olivia Yeley, the muscle inside, grabbed five rebounds and racked up 10 points.
Abby Worley was in the middle of it all, facilitating and making sure the Marauders momentum continued to hum along.
The 5-foot-3 point guard dished out a season-best 10 assists and added five rebounds and five points to keep the Marauders at a flawless 5-0 in the Hoosier Heritage Conference standings.
“I’m very confident that no matter what my teammates will move and be open for me, and the more patient we are the easier it is,” Worley said. “We’re very patient now, and I have the utmost confidence that they’ll get open. Confidence in them, it’s all them.”
With more factors at play at every turn, the Marauders’ comfort climbs. Teammates most of their lives since middle school, the starting lineup’s two seniors and three juniors aren’t focusing on the story lines or the noise.
They are chasing Ws.
Against Greenfield-Central (10-10, 3-3 HHC), the setup was ripe for a potential upset.
On the road, the Marauders were facing a team riding their own winning streak at five games.
Mt. Vernon is in position to capture the HHC outright if it wins out the remainder of the regular-season schedule. With 18 straight wins prior to Friday, they can become the first team in recent program history to reach 20 or more.
Then, for added pressure, the HHC traveling basketball trophy was on the line, too.
“Thank goodness we won that. I don’t like that added new piece of pressure either,” Mt. Vernon head coach Julie Shelton laughed.
The Marauders (20-1, 5-0 HHC) played loose against the Cougars on the same floor they had lost four times since 2014.
Greenfield-Central stayed close, maintaining an eight-point deficit and cutting it to five points until the Marauders’ defense and 3-point shooting (9-of-17) became too much to match in the second half.
“That’s one of the better teams in the state for a reason. Sometimes you have to hope that the shots aren’t falling, but I felt like tonight, when we defended, we made tough on them, but we gave Shelton too many open shots and she’s going to hit them,” Cougars head coach Bradley Key said. “That’s why they’re as good as they are.”
“We have some young kids out there. And, that’s no excuse, but we’re still learning. I didn’t think we played terrible basketball. I thought we competed. We just stopped looking to score in the second half.”
The Marauders didn’t.
A 7-0 run spearheaded by Lexi Shelton and Perry pushed the lead to 37-25 as the fourth quarter neared, and the lead swelled to 21 points late in the fourth as Worley dished out her 10th assist to a wide-open Yeley in the post to make it 46-28.
“We focused all week at practice to make sure we were ready for this game and to be ready for the pressure and everything,” Worley said. “To play away where we get no calls and stuff like that, we had to focus a lot.”
The defense forced 15 turnovers and the Marauders accounted for a combined 10 steals.
With Worley distributing and the Marauders always on the move, cutting and finding space, the team shot 47 percent in the first half, 71 percent in the second and 57 percent overall.
“Worley has been better and better as we’ve progressed this season and has been unbelievable for us. I think her assist average the second half of the season has doubled since the first half,” Julie Shelton said. “She sees a lot of the openings and is very confident with the basketball.
“Very rarely do we take a bad shot, and usually that’s why our field goal percent is so good. We make sure we have open looks, and we do move the ball and are patient. That’s why we win. It’s team basketball.”
Clamping down on their targets is another key component, which they showed against the Cougars.
Hannah Farrell was held to six points. She was averaging 15.5 ppg. Crystal Peterson finished with a team-high 12 points, but she was limited to one point in the second half.
“The first half we lost our assignments a few times and got out of what we were supposed to be in, but we came back out in the second half, and I thought really did a better job of what we were supposed to do defensively,” Shelton said. “I’m proud of them for taking the correction and direction at halftime well and doing what we needed to do well defensively.”
Now, the Marauders just need to win two more at home against New Castle on Tuesday and Delta on Thursday to seize the HHC outright before they set their sights on the state tournament.
