MV Wildcats claim Carmi-White County Invitational title

By Dave Pearce

The Mount Vernon Wildcats have won the Carmi-White County Invitational Tournament.

Coming off an impressive win over Southridge last week, Coach Doug Novsek felt confident in his team. The Wildcats win in with the idea that if they played the way they are capable, they could bring home the trophy.

The Wildcats were clearly the superior team in the first two outings. But in the championship game, it came down to one shot in the final seconds and the Meyer Robb to Brady Schickel connection worked to perfection to give Mount Vernon the title and the trophy.

“We had a real good week,” Novsek said.

“That last game was a hard game for us (against Fairfield for the title),” Novsek said. “We didn’t play real smart in the second half. A lot of times our shot selection wasn’t the best but they have a good team and a lot of good players. They did a lot of good things offensively.”

The Wildcats seemed to play well in spurts, building up leads as much as nine or 10 points only to have the Mules fight back and get right back into the game.

By the end of the first quarter, the Wildcats had pounced on the Mules and led 20-11, only to have the Mules outscore them in the second period 13-9. Stil, the Wildcats held a 29-24 lead at the half.

The teams continued to battle and the third quarter was a draw, with each team scoring 12 points. But in the final period, the Wildcats held on to get the 49-47 win.

“I don’t know how many times we got up by nine,” he said. “The shot clock was a little bit of a factor over there. We didn’t practice it much but what we didn’t have, when we pushed the ball up the floor and didn’t have anything, we didn’t work enough on flowing into something else.”

Therefore, the Wildcats would end up taking a less-than-desired shot or would get out of rhythm by holding onto the ball. The Wildcats got stagnant and had some guys trying to make individual plays there for awhile.

“But we figured it out and Brady made a heck of a play there at the end,” Novsek said. “The play was designed for Meyer (Robb) but it’s a two-man action between him and Brady. Meyer didn’t make a great read on the cut but Brady’s man went over to help with Meyer and he dumped the ball down to Brady made a big-time finishing contested shot.”

The shot gave the Wildcats the two points they needed to go ahead and eventually win the tourney. However, there were a few seconds left and the Wildcats had a foul to give and disrupted the Fairfield plan and they never got off a shot to attempt to tie the game.

The Wildcats showed good balance in the final game with Schickel leading the way with 17 points and dishing out five assists. Nash Hostetter, the tournament’s Most Valuable Player, was consistent, scoring 14 on 6-of-9 shooting from inside the arc. Robb finished with 13 points and five assists and 10 rebounds. Grayson Buse was a trooper on defense, scoring three points and Bryce Clowers finished with one point and two rebounds, as did Reese Harshbarger.

But the Wildcats had to win two games to get to the title game. It was good preparation for the upcoming post-season but Novsek pointed out the team will probably know more about the teams it will play in the sectional than they did about the Illinois teams.

“Playing three games like that, we didn’t know a whole lot about our opponents and we didn’t have much time to prepare,” Novsek said. “We had played Southridge on Friday and I gave the guys Saturday off because Southridge was a hell of a win for us. It was a hard game and we had to win that game. We don’t do any Sundays and we knew Carmi was down a little bit this year so we didn’t do a lot of stuff to prepare. We just went in and did some of the kinds of things we do in a normal day game. We did a shoot-around and walked through a few things and went up there and played. We didn’t play great. I wasn’t real happy with the way we played. We played in spurts but didn’t execute a lot of the time.”

But you’d never know it by the score. The Wildcats jumped on the homestanding Bulldogs and held them scoreless in the first period and led 11-0 at the first stop. Over the two middle quarters. The Wildcats built up a 29-26 lead, allowing several players to see varsity action who don’t ordinarily see it. After the game was already decided, Carmi outscored Mount Vernon 15-10 to account for the final 59-41 score.

Clowers led the Wildcats with 16 points, five rebounds and three assists. Hostetter had 14 points and nine assists to go with a couple of rebounds and a blocked shot. Buse had 11 points on the strength of three 3-point baskets and two assists. Robb had 10 points on 5-for-6 shooting from the field, three assists and five boards. Schickel had four points and two boards in limited action. Harshbarger had four points and Caleb Aldrich also scored in the game.

Against Harrisburg, the Wildcats played their best half of the tournament against the Bulldogs. The Wildcats exploded on Harrisburg, leading 19-9 after one period and putting the game out of reach with a 25-9 second quarter.

The Wildcats placed a season-high nine players in the scoring column. Robb led the way with 15 points while Schickel had 14 to go with four boards. Buse finished with 10 points and four assists while Clowers had nine points, three assists and eight rebounds. Hostetter saw limited action and had six points and seven assists. Harshbarger had five points and seven rebounds. Aldrich put three on the board and Waz Biggerstaff had two and Liam Johnson had one point and three boards. The Wildcats defeated Harrisburg 65-36.

The Wildcats will have a short week to prepare for a long bus ride and a shot at Tell City on Friday evening. Keaton Givens is fighting back from a broken finger and is hoping to get his practices in so he will be eligible to play against the Marksmen.

The Wildcats will take a 9-5 record into the stretch run of their season.