FORTVILLE — Through the first four weeks of the season, the Mt. Vernon girls basketball team won three of five games and put somewhat of a rhythm in place.
Then, came a COVID-19 postponement against Hoosier Heritage Conference rival Pendleton Heights on Dec. 5, followed by a program quarantine of their own.
To say the Marauders are playing catch up would be an understatement, but despite some hiccups on Tuesday night, Mt. Vernon showed glimpses of what they are aiming to accomplish this season and beyond.
[sc:text-divider text-divider-title=”Story continues below gallery” ]Click here to purchase photos from this gallery
Led by senior Lexi Shelton’s game-high 16 points, including four 3-pointers — all in the first quarter — the Class 4A Marauders defeated 3A No. 14 Bishop Chatard, 56-42, at home for their second straight win.
The game was their third since returning from quarantine, and they hope a restart to a long, uninterrupted stretch.
“It’s been difficult, but I think we’re doing pretty good. We’re just gradually getting there and getting there,” Mt. Vernon senior point guard Abby Worley said. “We’re getting better. Getting back from quarantine is just a process. You don’t know if you’re going to play in the next game or not? It’s just all up in the air, so we just have to be ready at all times.”
The Marauders reopened the 2020-21 season at Westfield on Dec. 17 with a 51-48 loss before bouncing back against HHC rival New Palestine on Saturday with a 43-29 victory to open league play.
Tuesday’s non-conference contest proved a warm up for the Marauders (5-3, 1-0 HHC), who have the Raymond James Hall of Fame Classic ahead on Dec. 29 and five more games from Jan. 5-16.
“It’s been really weird. Our first game of the season is the only game we’ve played with all of our players. That was an overtime loss to Franklin. It’s just been one thing after another,” Mt. Vernon head coach Julie Shelton said. “We’ve had layoffs, kids out. It’s just been crazy. I know I get frustrated, but it’s been extremely hard to find a rhythm.”
In the first quarter against Bishop Chatard (7-4), the Marauders were on point, shooting 7 of 13 from the field for an 18-point frame.
Lexi Shelton scored 14 of those points, converting five consecutive shot attempts from the field to post a 14-6 run by herself.
“It was very important to set the tone because if we came out lazy and we didn’t set the tone early, it would have been an ugly game for us,” Worley said. “It was good for us to get ahead. (Lexi is) amazing at shooting. It’s insane. She helped us a ton.”
Four of the Marauders’ starters reached double figures in points with Ellery Minch, Worley and Olivia Yeley each contributing 10 points apiece. Katie Gawrys provided six points off the bench.
Worley was 2-for-3 from the field and 5 of 6 from the free-throw line as Mt. Vernon increased its lead from 18-8 at the end of the first quarter to a 17-point margin in the second quarter.
The Marauders’ largest lead of the night reached 18 points in the fourth quarter behind a heads-up pass from Shelton to Minch, who scored and drew a foul. The freshman starter finished the and-1 situation to put Mt. Vernon up 43-25.
“I thought we had a good start and we executed against their 2-1-2 press really well. I thought we found their good players for the most part really well defensively, but most of their points came on offensive rebounds and hustle plays that we have got to clean up,” Julie Shelton said.
Zakia Rasheed finished with a team-high 12 points for the Trojans, and Moira McGinley had 11. Caroline Bell added nine points.
Bishop Chatard cut the Marauders’ advantage to 11 points off an Elaine Nickerson 3-pointer with 3 minutes, 4 seconds left in the game.
However, the Marauders went 11-for-14 from the foul line, including 10 of 13 in the fourth quarter to halt the Trojans’ comeback attempt.
“A lot of our turnovers and giving up way too many offensive rebounds were problems, but besides that I thought we had a pretty good game. But, those are two areas we have to correct,” Julie Shelton said.
“We had three tough games in about six days coming off about 19-20 days off. Again, it’s hard to get into a rhythm when we haven’t really had any kind of rhythm. Better now than later.”
More than 20 turnovers committed by Mt. Vernon gave the Trojans a chance, but 20 defensive rebounds in key moments helped the Marauders maintain control.
Riley Hasseld had a team-best eight rebounds for Mt. Vernon, Minch had six and Worley posted five.
“For me, we have a big tournament coming up, then we come right off of that into Pendleton (Heights), Mooresville, Noblesville, so we’ve got five really solid programs coming up,” Shelton said.
“We can’t make those types of mistakes and win with our schedule, so we’re going to have to fix it a little bit. But, I’m tough on them because I want them to be as successful and I want to be and they’re a good basketball team.”
