FORTVILLE — There was no celebration. Zero showboating. Nothing more than all eyes fixated forward towards the next task.
As the Mt. Vernon Marauders dribbled in the half court and ran off the final minute of regulation on Friday night against Yorktown, the mission was complete.
The first Marauders boys basketball team to win 14 or more games since the 2017-18 squad went 15-10, Mt. Vernon’s 57-46 victory over the visiting Tigers checked off their regular-season goal.
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Finishing with a record of 6-1 in the Hoosier Heritage Conference, the Marauders clinched a share of the league title with Delta (6-1 HHC), a first for Mt. Vernon since being co-champions with New Castle in 2015-16.
“It hasn’t been done here for awhile, so it’s always good to do something good like that,” Mt. Vernon junior guard Amhad Jarrard said. “The job is not done, though. We have sectional on Wednesday, so we’re looking forward to that.”
The Marauders (14-6) missed out on their first outright HHC championship since 2009-10, but their regular-season finale win over Yorktown course corrected the team’s momentum after a short-lived two-game losing streak.
Prior to falling to both rival New Palestine on the road, 75-71, last Friday and at home against Greenwood, 51-50, last Saturday, the Marauders were victorious in five of their last six games.
With the Class 4A Sectional 9 next week, the Marauders were locked in on finishing strong Friday before they head east five days to face host Richmond on Wednesday at 6 p.m. in the opening round.
“Since we’ve got here (as a coaching staff), we’ve talked about one game at a time. This year, our goal was to win the conference. We didn’t win it outright, but we have taken it one game at a time, and right now we focused all week of doing what we could with Yorktown and making sure we kept their guys under control,” Mt. Vernon head coach Ben Rhoades said.
“We looked at this as one of the steps we wanted to take this year. We’re looking to take the next step next week, but we have to win Wednesday to have another one.”
The Marauders cleared their HHC hurdle with an early 9-2 run after the game stood tied at 2- and 4-all against the Tigers (14-7, 5-3 HHC).
Mt. Vernon built a 20-point lead with 1:55 left in the first half behind a decisive 19-1 run that started with an Amhad Jarrard 3-pointer before the first quarter ended and was capped by a Drew Walker trey almost seven minutes later.
Jarrard posted a game-high 17 points on 7 of 9 shooting from the field, including a pair of 3-pointers. Cooper Galli had 14 points, going 5-for-9 from the floor and a perfect 3-for-3 from the free-throw line, while dishing out four assists and collecting a pair of steals.
Walker had 11 points and a trio of 3-pointers to add to his three steals and four assists. Razhaun Wells added eight points and seven rebounds.
Armon Jarrard contributed seven points, three rebounds, two steals and three assists. Cole Herman and Eli Bridenthal both combined for three blocks off the bench.
“Last week, those were two games that I think humbled us a little bit,” Rhoades said. “We had beaten Brebeuf and Mooresville the week before and we were feeling good, and that’s good to play with confidence, but I think we were overall not as prepared as we needed to be, and that was on me. This week, we came in pretty focused.”
Their approached equated efficiency.
The Marauders shot 56 percent from the field (22-for-39) and defended a double-digit lead that dropped down to seven points late before Amhad Jarrard pushed it back to 57-44 with 5-0 run of his own.
“(The New Palestine loss) was an eye-opener and let us know we needed to work harder, play more defense and do a lot more,” Amhad Jarrard said. “I have to pick it up now with sectional coming up. That’s when you have to pick it up and get your teammates involved.”
The Tigers had two players in double-figures, including a team-high 11 points from Jacob Grim, who went 3-for-5 from 3-point range. Kiernan Tewari had 10 points, followed by 9 points and seven rebounds by J.J. Evans. AJ Dunn chipped in seven points.
A Tewari 3-pointer with 2:41 remaining in regulation cut Mt. Vernon’s lead 50-43, but the Tigers wouldn’t get any closer despite an 11-2 run in the fourth quarter that narrowed the gap to 10.
“They’re one of the improved teams in our conference, hands down,” Rhoades said. “But our guys are honed in on what we’re trying to do, and I think tonight, even though we didn’t get any points off the bench, I felt like we got really good minutes off the bench, especially on defense. I thought tonight was a really good team effort.”
Now, the Marauders are on to the next challenge, vying for their first sectional title since 2018 at the same host site inside the Richmond Tiernan Center. Mt. Vernon has 13 sectional titles in its program history and are seeking its second in 4A, if the wins continue.
“We just have to stay humble, go in there and not look past them and just do what you do,” Amhad Jarrard said.
Rhoades believes his team is more than capable. It’s a matter of sticking to their game.
“I feel like all of them are ready for the next step, and I think the best part is that they all feel that on any given night I think we have 10 guys who can do it,” Rhoades said. “I think that’s good whether we’re talking injuries, foul trouble or when people have off games. I think that’s been real key for our team this year.”
