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NEW CASTLE – Jeffersonville’s players walked out of the locker room at New Castle Fieldhouse and down the hallway to its bus on Saturday afternoon looking like a team that could use a little rest.
“It’s been a long time since we’ve been pushed like that,” Jeffersonville coach Sherron Wilkerson said.
Class 4A sixth-ranked Jeffersonville won its 16th consecutive game in a classic semistate semifinal, rallying for a 63-59 victory over Mt. Vernon with a 16-2 run to close the game. The Red Devils trailed by 10 points in the fourth quarter but found a way to dig in and advance to the final step before next week’s 4A state championship for the second consecutive year.
IHSAA semistate live updates, schedule: Indiana high school boys basketball scores
Jeffersonville (22-5) will play No. 10 Lawrence North (22-6) — the last team to beat the Red Devils — at 8 tonight for the right to advance to next week’s state finals. The Red Devils came within one point of reaching the championship game last year, falling to Ben Davis.
The expectation is pretty simple at this point.
“A win,” Jeffersonville senior Tre Singleton said.
It took everything Singleton and his Jeffersonville teammates could do to accomplish that goal in their first game on Saturday. The 6-8 Singleton, a Northwestern commit, tipped his hat to Mt. Vernon guard Luke Ertel, calling him “the best guard in the state.” Ertel went for 29 points, but only two after Wilkerson moved Singleton to guard him in the fourth quarter.
“That was our ace in the hole,” Wilkerson said. “After watching him on film, we thought we could kind of run him down with some of our guards who could chase him. He’s their playmaker. He’s a one-man show, so we thought we could kind of run him down. But he never cracked. Then towards the end of the fourth quarter I looked at our coaches and said, ‘We need to put Tre on him.’ Fortunately for us, Tre was able to corral him a little bit.”
Mt. Vernon coach Joe Bradburn said it was “not a woulda, coulda, shoulda game.” Though the Marauders (21-6) led by 10 in the fourth quarter, Jeffersonville had it cut to 57-52 with 5:03 left after 6-6 Mt. Vernon senior Tyler Davis fouled Singleton on a 3-pointer to foul out of the game.
From there, Jeffersonville took control. Terrence Nord, who had not taken a shot, drilled a 3-pointer from the left corner to give the Red Devils a 59-57 lead with 1:58 left. Mt. Vernon, trailing by three points with 44.3 seconds remaining, had four attempts at 3-pointers on its next possession, but could not get anything to drop.
Michael Cooper made one of two free throws to close it out for Jeffersonville. The Wright State recruit finished with 24 points to lead the Red Devils, including 18 in the first half. Singleton, who picked up his third foul with 5:30 left in the third quarter, scored nine of his 18 points in the fourth quarter.
“It was tough because I had to play a lot smarter (with three fouls),” said Singleton, who sat just 56 seconds before coming back in the game. “I had to be mature and not pick up another dumb foul and let my team down.”
After leading Mt. Vernon to a dramatic double overtime win over No. 2 Greenfield-Central in the sectional championship and a rout of Brownsburg in the regional, it appeared Ertel may be able to lead the Marauders to another big victory, pushing a four-point lead at the end of the third quarter to nine on a dunk by Max Vise with 6:14 left.
But the Marauders went quiet on offense at the wrong time.
“We knew they were going to come back,” Bradburn said. “And I just couldn’t find a way to stop the bleeding … both teams were just gutting it out.”
Jeffersonville lost to Lawrence North 70-64 back on Jan. 4. That was some measure of revenge for the Wildcats after last year’s 62-60 loss to the Red Devils in the semistate semifinal last year at New Castle.
But this is the one that matters. If anything, Saturday’s win over Mt. Vernon shows Jeffersonville it can come back from a fourth quarter deficit.
“I think last year we lose that game,” Wilkerson said. “Being able to come back and withstand their pressure and get out of there with a win speaks about our maturity.”
Call Star reporter Kyle Neddenriep at (317) 444-6649.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: IHSAA basketball: Jeffersonville rallies to beat Mt. Vernon in semistate
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“It’s been a long time since we’ve been pushed like that,” Jeffersonville coach Sherron Wilkerson said.
Class 4A sixth-ranked Jeffersonville won its 16th consecutive game in a classic semistate semifinal, rallying for a 63-59 victory over Mt. Vernon with a 16-2 run to close the game. The Red Devils trailed by 10 points in the fourth quarter but found a way to dig in and advance to the final step before next week’s 4A state championship for the second consecutive year.
IHSAA semistate live updates, schedule: Indiana high school boys basketball scores
Jeffersonville (22-5) will play No. 10 Lawrence North (22-6) — the last team to beat the Red Devils — at 8 tonight for the right to advance to next week’s state finals. The Red Devils came within one point of reaching the championship game last year, falling to Ben Davis.
The expectation is pretty simple at this point.
“A win,” Jeffersonville senior Tre Singleton said.
It took everything Singleton and his Jeffersonville teammates could do to accomplish that goal in their first game on Saturday. The 6-8 Singleton, a Northwestern commit, tipped his hat to Mt. Vernon guard Luke Ertel, calling him “the best guard in the state.” Ertel went for 29 points, but only two after Wilkerson moved Singleton to guard him in the fourth quarter.
“That was our ace in the hole,” Wilkerson said. “After watching him on film, we thought we could kind of run him down with some of our guards who could chase him. He’s their playmaker. He’s a one-man show, so we thought we could kind of run him down. But he never cracked. Then towards the end of the fourth quarter I looked at our coaches and said, ‘We need to put Tre on him.’ Fortunately for us, Tre was able to corral him a little bit.”
Mt. Vernon coach Joe Bradburn said it was “not a woulda, coulda, shoulda game.” Though the Marauders (21-6) led by 10 in the fourth quarter, Jeffersonville had it cut to 57-52 with 5:03 left after 6-6 Mt. Vernon senior Tyler Davis fouled Singleton on a 3-pointer to foul out of the game.
From there, Jeffersonville took control. Terrence Nord, who had not taken a shot, drilled a 3-pointer from the left corner to give the Red Devils a 59-57 lead with 1:58 left. Mt. Vernon, trailing by three points with 44.3 seconds remaining, had four attempts at 3-pointers on its next possession, but could not get anything to drop.
Michael Cooper made one of two free throws to close it out for Jeffersonville. The Wright State recruit finished with 24 points to lead the Red Devils, including 18 in the first half. Singleton, who picked up his third foul with 5:30 left in the third quarter, scored nine of his 18 points in the fourth quarter.
“It was tough because I had to play a lot smarter (with three fouls),” said Singleton, who sat just 56 seconds before coming back in the game. “I had to be mature and not pick up another dumb foul and let my team down.”
After leading Mt. Vernon to a dramatic double overtime win over No. 2 Greenfield-Central in the sectional championship and a rout of Brownsburg in the regional, it appeared Ertel may be able to lead the Marauders to another big victory, pushing a four-point lead at the end of the third quarter to nine on a dunk by Max Vise with 6:14 left.
But the Marauders went quiet on offense at the wrong time.
“We knew they were going to come back,” Bradburn said. “And I just couldn’t find a way to stop the bleeding … both teams were just gutting it out.”
Jeffersonville lost to Lawrence North 70-64 back on Jan. 4. That was some measure of revenge for the Wildcats after last year’s 62-60 loss to the Red Devils in the semistate semifinal last year at New Castle.
But this is the one that matters. If anything, Saturday’s win over Mt. Vernon shows Jeffersonville it can come back from a fourth quarter deficit.
“I think last year we lose that game,” Wilkerson said. “Being able to come back and withstand their pressure and get out of there with a win speaks about our maturity.”
Call Star reporter Kyle Neddenriep at (317) 444-6649.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: IHSAA basketball: Jeffersonville rallies to beat Mt. Vernon in semistate
Continue reading...
