INDIANAPOLIS — The Mt. Vernon girls basketball team was unable to match its fourth-quarter heroics twice in the same day.
The Marauders’ 12-game winning streak and memorable 2020-21 basketball season came to close Saturday night.
In the championship game of the IHSAA Class 4A Decatur Central Regional, Mt. Vernon (19-6) lost to Brownsburg 44-35 at David ‘Doc’ Rather Gymnasium.
Saturday afternoon, Mt. Vernon rallied from a seven-point deficit with just six minutes remaining in the fourth quarter to defeat Roncalli, 55-47, in the second of two semifinal games.
To open the day, Brownsburg (16-10) upset top-ranked North Central (24-3), in overtime, 53-47.
The Marauders were looking for their first regional title since 2013, a 3A championship that led to a state title. It would have been their first 4A regional crown.
“It means a lot to even win the first game. We didn’t even know if we were going to have a season,” Mt. Vernon senior Olivia Yeley said. “The fact that we did and made it this far, makes us feel good.
“Winning earlier, we knew we had done something (at the 4A level) that Mt. Vernon hadn’t done in a while. We had it (Saturday night). It was right there, but we just couldn’t finish.”
Brownsburg will play Franklin (22-2) in one of two 4A semistate games on Saturday, Feb. 20, with the winner earning a spot in the state championship game to be held either Feb. 26 or 27.
In the battle for the regional title and a berth into the classification’s final four, Mt. Vernon and Brownsburg were tied, 32-32, heading into the fourth quarter.
The Marauders managed just three fourth-quarter points, a Maddie Swingle 3-pointer with just 53 seconds remaining in the game.
“I think part of it was (Brownsburg’s) length gave us some trouble with our press,” Mt. Vernon head coach Julie Shelton said. “And, we just ran out of gas a little bit in the fourth quarter.”
In a second-half highlighted by big scoring spurts from both teams, Mt. Vernon had taken the lead in the third quarter prior to the Bulldogs’ game-deciding run.
“We had a lot of emotional periods in the afternoon game where we had to fight. We got ourselves in a hole and had to climb out,” Shelton said. “We climbed out of that hole today. We battled the whole game (tonight), we just ran out of gas and they hit some big 3s.”
In the third quarter, Brownsburg had scored on a five-point play.
Ra’Shamiya Webb hit a 3-pointer and was fouled after the shot. The Bulldogs added a 2-pointer on the possession, getting a bucket from Ball State recruit Ally Becki, giving them a 26-19 lead with 4:58 left in the period.
Mt. Vernon answered the rare 5-pointer with a 13-0 run, started by a 3-pointer from senior Riley Hasseld.
Then Marauders’ leading scorer Lexi Shelton went on a tear, scoring the game’s next 10 points.
She scored while triple-teamed, drew a foul, and converted the free throw to cut Brownsburg’s lead to one. The University of Saint Francis-bound standout scored again to give Mt. Vernon a lead, 27-26, with 2:52 remaining in the quarter.
A 3-pointer followed. Then, on a great inside post move, she scored to extend the Marauders’ lead to 32-26 with 1:38 left on the third-quarter clock.
We knew they were a gritty team and they were not going to quit,” Brownsburg coach Debbie Smiley said of the Marauders. “They’re going to keep coming after us whether they are up nine or down nine. They erased a pretty significant lead against Roncalli and ended up beating them by (eight).
“They hit big shots at big times. We had to maintain our composure. That’s what (Mt. Vernon) does. They’re well-coached, well-disciplined. They stuck to their game plan. Hats off to them.”
The Marauders just didn’t have enough left in the tank.
“She didn’t want to lose, her as much as any of them, or more,” Julie Shelton said of her daughter’s third-quarter barrage of points. “It was go time, but unfortunately it wasn’t enough.”
Mt. Vernon’s third-quarter scoring run would be its last. It was followed by a drought of over one quarter without scoring.
Brownsburg answered Shelton on the next 14 points, nine that came on three 3-pointers from sophomore guard Kailyn Terrell, her only points of the game. She had missed her first five shots prior to tying the game, 32-32, on a trey at the end of the third.
“Kailyn Terrell hit some big shots for us. She’s a confident shooter and a good baseline shooter,” Smiley added. “I told her, ‘You’re fine. You’ve got to keep your head up. That shot’s going to fall for you.’ She just had to have a little bit of reassurance. I think hitting that one at the end of the third gave her a big boost mentally and a little bit of confidence.”
“For (Terrell) to come back and hit them after missing so many, that was huge,” coach Shelton added.
In the semifinal, leading up to Mt. Vernon’s fourth-quarter comeback, both the Marauders and Roncalli Royals put on their own shooting display.
Tied 17-17 at the half, the teams exchanged long-range bombs for eight minutes. Roncalli (20-5), on a trey with 12 seconds left in the quarter from Sydney Horton, led 36-33 going into the final quarter.
In the third, Roncalli hit 5 of 8 (62.5 percent) 3-pointers, while Mt. Vernon connected on 4 of 7 (57.1 percent), including its first four attempts.
With the momentum of Horton’s late bucket, Roncalli extended its lead with the first four points of the final quarter.
Out of timeouts with their season on the line, the Marauders went on a 15-0 run.
It started with a bucket from freshman Ellery Minch, assisted by Lexi Shelton. Minch was fouled on the play and made the free throw to cut the lead to 40-36.
Abby Worley followed with a successful drive to the bucket and then Yeley fired up the Marauders bench and fans in attendance with the first of her back-to-back 3-pointers. The initial trey gave Mt. Vernon a 41-40 lead.
“I knew my teammates needed me to step up,” Yeley said. “I’ve hit a few, here and there, but I knew, since we were down, we needed some momentum.
“On our way back up the floor, I told Lexi, ‘We’re not losing this game.’ I think she knew I wasn’t going to let us lose this game.”
After Yeley’s second long-range jumper, Worley scored off a turnover. Lexi Shelton with 1:28 left, added a pair of free throws to give Mt. Vernon a 48-40 lead. The Marauders hit 8 of 10 (80 percent) free throws in the fourth quarter.
In the title game, Lexi Shelton led Mt. Vernon scorers with 16. Worley had six while Hasseld, Yeley, Swingle and Minch scored three apiece. Shay Shipley had the other Marauders point.
Brownsburg’s Becki, led all scorers with 19 points.
In the win over Roncalli, Worley led Mt. Vernon with 16. Yeley had 14 and Swingle, off the bench, added 10. Lexi Shelton scored nine and Hasseld and Minch each had three points.
Roncalli’s Maddie Bischoff had a game-high 26, including three third-quarter 3-pointers. The Marauders shut her down in the final period, holding the senior with Division-I offers, to just 1 of 5 shooting from behind the arc.
The end of the season marked the end of the high school careers of six Mt. Vernon seniors, Shelton, Worley, Yeley, Hasseld, Katie Gawrys and Faith Hayes.
“I couldn’t be more proud of them,” coach Shelton said. “This whole group, they’re great kids. We have six seniors that have been together since they were little.
“What’s so special about this group is we don’t have a Division-I basketball player, but we’re skilled and we share the basketball and we don’t care who scores or who does what. It makes it a lot of fun to coach.”
The group, during their four years at Mt. Vernon, won two Hoosier Heritage Conference championships and a pair of sectionals. In the last three years, the Marauders had a combined record of 61-14, including a 22-2 season —that had a 21-game winning streak — in 2019-20.
Prior to Saturday’s loss, Mt. Vernon had won 12 in a row, starting with a Jan. 7 win at Mississinewa. Opponents scored 40 points or more just twice during that stretch, averaging 31.8 points per game.
