Mt. Vernon’s Eli Bridenthal, left, and Amhad Jarrard celebrate defeating Anderson during the Class 4A Sectional 9 semifinals on Friday, March 4, 2022. (Tom Russo | Daily Reporter)
GREENFIELD — The Class 4A Sectional 9 championship is staying in Hancock County and in the Hoosier Heritage Conference.
In front of a near capacity crowd on Friday night inside Dellen Automotive Gymnasium, the defending sectional champion No. 7 Mt. Vernon Marauders faced their most difficult postseason task, and they kept their composure to win 82-76 over an imposing No. 10 Anderson Indians team that was fixated on revenge.
The Marauders (21-2) trailed 17-14 after the first quarter at Greenfield-Central High School until the back-to-back HHC champions showcased their experience, building a pair of 12-point leads in the second half to stymie the North Central Conference champion Indians (20-5), who had won six straight.
In a sectional semifinal matchup that was highlighted by a handful of dunks, an Anderson technical foul, three first-half ties, and a 12-point lead that dropped down to one possession late in the fourth quarter, the Marauders defended their ground and won their 15th consecutive.
Jarrard came up clutch when it mattered most, drilling two of his five 3-pointers, consecutively, after Anderson cut into Mt. Vernon’s lead, 62-58, with 4 minutes, 18 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter.
Jarrard converted a trio of clutch 3-pointers in the final frame and went 8 of 10 from the free-throw line as the team finished 23 of 32 for the game.
His back-to-back 3-point barrage was a direct response following a technical foul by Ja’Quan Ingram, who undercut Jarrard’s twin brother, Amhad, an IUPUI commit, two minutes earlier. Amhad was hit while attempting a breakaway dunk and fell hard to the floor.
“We just kept our head. They were kind of all over the place, but we kept our heads,” said Armon Jarrard, who had a game-high 29 points. “(The basket) looked very big. I felt like I could hit every shoot I took.”
The Marauders had four players reach double figures with Avery Williams providing 18 points, Cooper Galli adding 10 and Amhad Jarrard finishing with 17. Ray Wells had eight points and five rebounds.
However, it was Williams’ defense that put the Marauders in front with both teams tied late in the first half.
Williams recorded six steals and tied the game 29-all with 2:08 left in the first half on a putback. Up 31-29, the Marauders increased the lead 34-29 after Williams poked free a steal and dished the ball to a sprinting Amhad Jarrard for a dunk and a foul with 25.6 seconds before halftime.
“He was very big. We needed that. He gave us a spark,” Armon Jarrard remarked on Williams’ defense. “This was a big statement. It’s a lot of fun.”
A 7-2 Mt. Vernon run to open the second half capped by a Williams’ steal and an Armon Jarrard bucket pushed the margin to 10 points. Williams buried a 3-pointer with 51.0 seconds left in the third to put Mt. Vernon on top 54-42.
“AJ is a competitor. I’m sure if he was playing croquet, he would be very competitive. He doesn’t want to lose when it comes down to it. He’s always focused on the task at hand,” Mt. Vernon head coach Ben Rhoades said. “I would say in the last 24 hours, I’ve seen more focus out of those guys, like AJ, then I’ve seen all season.”
The Indians lost to the Marauders in last year’s sectional title game, 69-65, and the program retooled this season to avenge the past.
With its starting lineup nearly intact, the Indians added 6-foot-8 senior Sean Paige to their roster, a transfer from Chicago’s Proviso East.
Paige had a team-high 26 points and 10 rebounds, while Tyrelle Willis had 15 points and Ingram added 10. Ahmere Carson came off the bench for 12 points.
“I wasn’t sure how it was going to look like since we played Anderson in the final last year, but I was really happy how they came together and had each others’ back. It really showed tonight,” Rhoades said. “We had four guys in double figures and almost five. That’s what makes us a hard team to guard.”
A steal by Williams and a dunk by Armon Jarrard, also an IUPUI recruit, with 5:47 left in the game made it 62-50, but the Indians went on an 8-0 run to bring the score to 62-58 before Armon got hot from long range.
“We had to let everyone know how we were going to go in the next game,” Armon Jarrard said. “We just have to keep playing hard and keep playing defense. We have to keep our heads and keep our focus.”
The Indians closed in 77-74 with 41.0 seconds in the game, but Armon Jarrard converted 1 of 2 free throws and the Marauders went 5 of 6 from the line in the final 34.6 seconds.
“Almost everyone from Anderson played last year, too. Four of their top guys were returners, and this was just our guys knowing the task at hand. They knew they had to take care of one game at a time. You can’t get to the championship game, if you don’t care of the semifinal,” Mt. Vernon head coach Ben Rhoades said.
“We knew it was going to be a fast game. We knew it was going to be rough. We knew there would be times where it would be a little bit out of control, but I thought when it really came down to it in the second half, we did a good job of not turning the ball over.”
The Indians, which had eight players at 6-2 or taller, battled foul trouble with two players fouling out and 22 penalties charged against them. Mt. Vernon hit 9 of 16 3-pointers to compensate for being out-rebounded 27-19.
“The biggest thing is Anderson is so big and long, we had a really hard time rebounding against them, and I think we could have blocked out better than we did, but we got a few loose balls when we really needed them at the end,” Rhoades said.
“We talked about how in the tournament, any time, there’s a lot of emotion going on. One team can’t get a mental edge over the other because when you keep your composure. It was really important to us to stay calm. We did a good job and fortunately, we get to play tomorrow night now.”
The Marauders will look to repeat as sectional champions against HHC and county rival New Palestine tonight at 7:30 p.m. New Palestine beat Richmond 76-58 in the evening’s first semifinal game. The Marauders and Dragons faced each other on Feb. 18 with the Marauders winning, 60-56, en route to an outright conference championship.
Mt. Vernon 82, Anderson 76
Anderson;17;12;15;32;—;76
Mt. Vernon;14;20;20;28;—;82
ANDERSON (20-5): Ahmere Carson 6 0-0 12, Ty Willis 5 2-2 15, Ja’Quan Ingram 4 2-2 10, Jaylen Murphy 1 0-0 2, Sean Paige 11 4-8 26, Lathan Averhart 2 0-0 6, Kedric Anderson 1 2-2 5, Damien King 0 0-0 0, Louis Jackson 0 0-0 0. Totals: 30 10-14 76.
MT. VERNON (21-2): Avery Williams 6 3-4 18, Armon Jarrard 8 8-10 29, Cooper Galli 2 6-6 10, Amhad Jarrard 7 2-8 17, Ray Wells 2 4-5 8, George Burhenn 0 0-0 0, Eli Bridenthal 0 0-0 0. Totals: 25 23-32 82
3-point goals: Anderson 6 (Willis 3, Anderson 1, Averthart 2); Mt. Vernon 9 (Williams 3, Ar. Jarrard 5, Ah. Jarrard 1)
