Mt. Vernon’s Ellery Minch (12) puts up a one-handed shot over Pendleton Heights’ Kaycie Warfel (12) and Haliee Brunnemer (3) during their game at Mt. Vernon High School on Saturday, Dec. 4, 2021.
Rob Baker | Daily Reporter
HANCOCK COUNTY — High school basketball is in full swing and the conference standings are changing as the season continues to unfold.
On Friday night, the New Palestine boys and girls basketball teams both recorded key Hoosier Heritage Conference victories by sweeping their home doubleheader against rival Greenfield-Central.
The Dragons (7-4) girls evened up their conference record at 2-2 with a 43-32 win over the visiting Cougars (1-8, 0-2 HHC).
Currently, Pendleton Heights (8-2, 5-0) remains the conference front runners with New Castle (6-6, 3-1) behind the Arabians, and both defending champion Mt. Vernon (6-3, 1-1) and Yorktown (2-6, 1-1) tied in the girls standings.
Shelbyville (6-5, 1-2) and Delta (2-9, 0-4) are positioned below the Dragons despite the former beating New Palestine, 39-29, on Dec. 7. New Palestine’s other HHC loss was against New Castle, 54-51, on Nov. 30.
Mt. Vernon’s lone HHC loss this season was against Pendleton Heights, 47-36, on Dec. 4.
In the boys race, New Palestine’s HHC season-opening win over Greenfield-Central locked the Dragons (3-1) into an early four-way tie for first at 1-0.
New Castle (5-1, 1-0), Yorktown (2-1, 1-0) and defending champion Mt. Vernon (1-1, 1-0) round out the conference’s initial top-four with Greenfield-Central (3-2, 0-1), Delta (3-2, 0-1), Shelbyville (1-4, 0-1) and Pendleton Heights (0-5, 0-1) trailing for now.
This Friday, the G-C Cougar, Mt. Vernon Marauder and New Palestine Dragon boys will seek to shake up the standings a bit more with another wave of HHC games.
New Palestine heads to New Castle, Mt. Vernon hosts Shelbyville and the Cougars welcome Yorktown for 7:30 p.m. varsity tips.
Tonight, the Mt. Vernon girls travel to New Palestine and collide for a crucial conference meeting.
Marauders even up HHC record
The Mt. Vernon girls basketball team won its second straight game on Saturday while also evening up their conference record at 1-1.
The host Marauders defeated Yorktown 39-22 and improved their season record to 6-3 overall.
MV’s Ellery Minch finished the win with 10 points and five rebounds. Alaina Nugent added 10 points. Khloe Patterson had eight points and 11 rebounds. Madison Swingle provided six points, six steals and seven rebounds.
“We had a good team effort with balanced scoring and better team defense,” Mt. Vernon head coach Julie Shelton said. “Defensive effort is going to be very important against New Pal.”
Marauders cruise past Arabians
The Mt. Vernon boys basketball team picked up its first win of the season on Friday night and grabbed an early lead in the HHC race.
The Marauders traveled to rival Pendleton Heights, winning 68-48. The victory positioned the Marauders (1-1) into a four-way tie for first in the conference at 1-0.
Amhad Jarrard led the Marauders with 20 points, five rebounds and four assists. Armon Jarrard had 19 points, six rebounds and four assists. Cooper Galli contributed 12 points with a trio of 3-pointers.
“The second-half effort was much better than the first half. We didn’t settle for outside shots and took the ball to the rim,” Mt. Vernon head coach Ben Rhoades said. “Did a great job of sharing the ball in the second half and staying more focused on the defensive end of the floor.”
Mt. Vernon is at home for its next three contests, including a game against Decatur Central at 7:30 p.m. tonight. The Marauders host HHC foe Shelbyville on Friday and Southport on Saturday. Both games are scheduled for 7:30 p.m.
Cougars bounce back with win
The Greenfield-Central boys basketball team dropped a tough HHC game on Friday at rival New Palestine, 47-43, but the Cougars bounced back to cap their back-to-back weekend.
Greenfield-Central defeated visiting Speedway, 72-44, on Saturday to improve its season record to 3-2. The win was the Cougars’ third in four games.
G-C junior Dylan Moles scored a team-high 22 points on 8 of 13 shooting in the victory. Moles was 5-for-5 from the free-throw line and added four rebounds and three assists.
Freshman Braylon Mullins finished with 17 points on 7 of 11 shooting, including 3 of 7 from 3-point range. He hauled in seven rebounds, two assists and two steals.
Senior Joey Roland had 13 points with nine rebounds. Senior Adam Lester dished out three assists to go with 10 points. Senior Rune Carpenter-Jones had eight points.
Royals win second straight
The Eastern Hancock boys basketball picked up its second straight win on Friday, defeating visiting Northeastern 56-52.
The victory improved the Royals’ season record to 3-1 with a huge rivalry meeting ahead on Friday at home with neighboring Knightstown.
Eastern Hancock jumped out to a 32-20 lead on Saturday and stayed in front 39-32 after three quarters. The Royals were outscored 20-17 in the final frame, but they hung on down the stretch.
EH junior Grant Gray posted a team-high 16 points with three of the Royals’ 12 long-range jumpers from beyond the arc.
Junior Silas Spaulding had 11 points, junior Jacob Spaulding had nine points. Junior Edric Miller added six points. Senior Cyrus Burton finished with eight points.
Miller buried two 3-pointers, Burton fired a pair and Silas Spaulding had three. Gray went 3-for-4 from the foul line with two blocks, while Burton was 2-for-2.
Miller seized a team-best six rebounds with three assists. Burton and Silas Spaulding both had four rebounds. Jacob Spaulding posted a team-best five assists. Burton finished with three assists.
