Conference Conflict: Dragons hand Marauders first HHC loss

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New Palestine’s Eli Stephens defends against Mt. Vernon’s Avery Williams, Jr. during their game on Friday, Feb. 19, 2021. (Tom Russo | Daily Reporter)

NEW PALESTINE — The annual late-February Hoosier Heritage Conference showdown between two Hancock County rivals doesn’t always preview what lies ahead in two weeks during sectional tournament time, but it certainly can heighten the anticipation.

New Palestine took the lead for good in the second quarter and led by 16 in the fourth before holding off Mt. Vernon in a 75-71 Dragons’ victory at New Palestine High School Friday night.

It was the first loss for the Marauders in HHC play this season and stopped a string of eight-straight league wins over two seasons.

Mt. Vernon is 5-1 with one conference game remaining, a home contest against Yorktown in the season finale on Feb. 26.

Delta, a 47-44 winner over Shelbyville on Friday, clinched a share of the league crown by wrapping up conference play with a 6-1 mark.

New Palestine, the defending conference champion, finishes HHC play with a 5-2 record. Overall, the Dragons are 13-7 and the Marauders dropped to 13-5.

“It’s hard, obviously. One of our goals was to win conference and we can still tie for the conference this year,” Mt. Vernon head coach Ben Rhoades. “We’ll get better from this. We have two tough games before the sectional, and I’m confident we’ll respond well moving forward. I think it was a little bit of a wake-up call, and we’ll need to bring a little bit more energy moving forward.”

The Dragons didn’t lack the energy needed in Friday’s rivalry tilt. They’ve won four of the last five meetings. Mt. Vernon won last year’s regular-season matchup before the Dragons knocked off the Marauders in a sectional semifinal game.

In 2019, the Dragons won both encounters, including a win in the sectional championship.

In 2018, the return of New Palestine and Mt. Vernon playing in the same sectional, the Marauders won both meetings, including the sectional title game.

“It’s a rivalry game and our kids seem to focus and play really, really hard against county schools,” New Palestine coach Trent Whitaker. “Knowing it’s a team that we have to beat in a couple weeks at the sectional, the kids came out focused and ready to play.”

New Palestine went on an 11-0 fourth-quarter run to take a 62-46 lead with 5:27 remaining. The Marauders rallied back and cut it to two points when Armon Jarrard connected on a corner 3-pointer to make it 71-69 with 28 seconds remaining.

A dunk — one of five on the night — by Armon’s twin brother, Amhad Jarrard, was sandwiched in between four free throws from New Palestine sophomore guard Blaine Nunnally to close out the game.

“We knew they weren’t going to give up. They’ve got some great, great basketball players and they are well-coached. We knew a run was coming. We just had to withstand it,” Whitaker said. “We hit some free throws down the stretch and made plays.”

Mt. Vernon rallied back, but it never could comeback completely from the strong Dragons start.

Rhoades was happy with his team’s second-half effort and its comeback. He just hoped that performance would have started earlier.

“The sign of a good team is what New Pal did. They got the lead and didn’t relinquish it,” Rhoades said. “We made a really good run and gave 100 percent effort at that point.

“I wish we would have given more of that effort, as a team, earlier in the game. That’s on me. I did not have them prepared enough to play the game we needed to to come out and win the conference tonight. One of our goals was to win the conference and we still have that chance.”

New Palestine outscored Mt. Vernon 20-9 in the second quarter. Junior Steele Brasfield was the biggest of many strong contributors from the home team.

He had six second-quarter points and 14 in the first half. Brasfield led all scorers with 26. He was one of three New Palestine players to score in double figures. Nunnally, who hit 10-for-11 at the foul line in the second half and 11-for-13 for the game, had 19 points.

Senior center Matthew Brown scored 11, including nine in the fourth quarter. Senior Eli Stephens helped with a strong start scoring all eight of his points, which included two 3-pointers, in the first quarter.

“They were feeding off each other,” Whitaker said of his team’s second-quarter offense.

“Unfortunately we (dropped conference games earlier). We had nothing to lose tonight and our kids played really loose and that’s the way we need to finish out the year.”

The Jarrards helped get the Marauders back in it. Amhad Jarrard finished with 23 points, 15 in the second half. Armon Jarrard had 11 of his 15 in the final two quarters. Razhaun Wells, who had nine first half points, but missed most of the third quarter with what appeared to be a foot injury, returned to finish with 11 points.

“New Pal has won the last two sectionals and we’re trying to get to the point where we can compete for a sectional. Until you can knock off the two-time defending champion you’re not going to win the sectional,” Rhoades said of the possibility of meeting again in two weeks.

“It’s part of us maturing as a team. New Pal was very confident they were going to beat us. They played well and they played hard a credit to their coaches and team.”

Though teams have key games remaining, New Palestine, Mt. Vernon and the rest of the field in Class 4A Sectional 9 will be interested in Sunday’s release of the IHSAA boys basketball state tournament pairings.

The seven-team tournament, along with the Dragons and Marauders include another county and conference rival Greenfield-Central, conference rival Pendleton Heights along with Anderson, Muncie Central and host Richmond.