Mt’neers knock off Blue Jays; look to Stockton championship

Lady Mt’neers fall to state-ranked Logan-Rogersville, will host East Newton Lady Patriots tomorrow
 
The Mt. Vernon boys basketball team traveled to Marshfield on Thursday, Jan. 29 and came home with a 76-67 win.
The Mt’neers led 19-18 after the first quarter, but the Blue Jays got hot in the second quarter, scoring 22 points and holding Mt. Vernon to 11 points to lead 40-30 at the half. Things turned around for the Mt’neers in the second half, as they found their shooting touch, doubling up Marshfield 20-10 in the third quarter to tie the game at 50-50. Mt. Vernon took over in the final quarter of play, scoring 26 points and pulling ahead of Marshfield for good and cruising to the nine-point win.
Hunter Conway led the way with 29 points, Griffin Cordray added 21 points and Hunter Dawson ended the game with 13 points.
“As coaches we were a little concerned going into half-time,” said head coach Ryan Worley. “We were down 10 points on the road versus a very good Marshfield team which can make for a long night. But as we walked into the locker room we could hear the players talking through the adjustments that we needed to make in the second half and how they could look to take advantage of certain match-ups. All the credit goes to our players for doing an amazing job of making those adjustments. They did a great job of getting open shots on offense for both their teammates and themselves while defensively taking Marshfield out of what they wanted to do. It was a focused team effort from our group. We are starting to find a nice rhythm to our offense, scoring over 70 pts in each of our last two games. Our focus moving into this last stretch of the season is to continue to have a “1% better today than the day before” mindset while avoiding a “we have arrived” mentality. If we can maintain that mindset, it should allow us to improve in a few smaller areas of the game and help us to play our best basketball, at the right time of the season.”
Mt. Vernon is 9-8 on the season and were scheduled to play last night at McDonald County and tonight at Stockton in the championship of the Stockton Tournament before hosting East Newton Friday night.

Girls basketball
The Lady Mt’neers traveled to Logan-Rogersville on Thursday to take on the Class 4, fourth ranked Lady Wildcats but lost 60-28.
It was a close first quarter, as Mt. Vernon only trailed 13-8 at the end of the quarter. A 20-point second quarter started to put the game out of reach, as the Lady Wildcats led 33-17 at the half. In the third quarter, Logan-Rogersville added another 22 points to increase their lead to 45-22, before scoring 15 points to close out the final quarter of play.“It was a tough battle against one of the top-ranked teams in the state,” said head coach Alexis Cauthon. “But I’m incredibly proud of the improvement we’ve shown since the last time we faced them. Our goal has always been continuous growth, and that progress was on full display tonight. We’re still working on digging deep to find that consistent inner competitor, but we are moving in the right direction and becoming a much tougher team to play.”
Mt. Vernon is 4-12 on the season and were scheduled to travel to Class 5, third ranked McDonald County on Monday night before hosting East Newton tomorrow night.