IN THE DARKNESS OF NEW CASTLE FIELDHOUSE – The lights were off, everyone’s gone and the world’s largest high school basketball fieldhouse is completely silent late Saturday night as I finished writing after Mt. Vernon’s 77-69 Class 4A semistate championship victory over New Albany.
Earlier, as Mt. Vernon celebrated on the court, I watched Luke Ertel sign autographs and take a few photos and then escape the mob. He took off sprinting to the tunnel that leads upstairs to the locker room at New Castle.
As many of his Mt. Vernon teammates celebrated on the court, Ertel needed a chance to breathe after one of the weirdest games of the season. One of those teammates still down on the court was senior Jamaree Collins. He was cut from the freshman team, then came back to play on the junior varsity as a sophomore and junior.
And here he was in the biggest game of his life, scoring eight points in the first quarter on his way to a 14-point night and helping Mt. Vernon to its first state finals appearance in program history.
“Cut from the freshman basketball team,” Ertel said. “And now he’s doing that his senior year. It’s crazy. Big time.”
Maybe it does not turn out this way for Mt. Vernon if Collins had decided to give up on his basketball dreams after his freshman year.
“I just had to come back harder and stronger and just had to keep working and get better,” Collins said of his journey. “Coach (Joe) Bradburn told me (last year) I should have been on varsity. I just kept working and working.”
Ertel had a great night, of course: 22 points, 11 rebounds, 10 assists. When Ertel was on the floor, Mt. Vernon asserted itself against New Albany, which did bother the Marauders with its full-court pressure even when Ertel was out there. The problem for the Marauders was when he was not out there.
When Ertel was forced to the bench after picking up his third and fourth fouls within an 18-second span of the third quarter, it nearly unraveled on Mt. Vernon. A 14-point lead disintegrated to a one-point deficit before he returned and righted the ship.
Ertel credited his teammates, not just Collins. He called junior Owen Daugherty “the best shooter in the state” earlier in the day after Mt. Vernon beat Decatur Central by 20 points in the semistate semifinal. He called 6-8 junior Max Vise “a top five player in the state” after his 22-point game against New Albany. On down the list, he credited the other Marauders.
But New Albany coach Jason Jones knows Ertel is the engine.
“We made life pretty difficult on him,” Jones said. “He’s so good. That’s all you can do in those situations is make his shots tough, make his catches tough. I thought we did a great job of doubling him, getting the ball out of his hands.”
New Albany believed Ertel might have the ball out of his hands entirely with a little more than 4 minutes remaining in the game. Ertel had the ball near his own basket when he appeared to elbow junior Seth Winslow above the eye as he made a move to clear the ball to his left side and dribble against the press.
It would have been the fifth foul on Ertel. Mt. Vernon’s odds of winning, even with a 66-62 lead, would have dropped dramatically. That no call, combined with a technical foul called on Karson Stoudemire for taunting after making a layup to put New Albany up one late in the third quarter, stuck with Jones after the game.
“We go up one and have all the momentum in the world and get a technical called,” Jones said. “Right or wrong, that flipped the momentum back. I thought Seth taking the elbow, that foul is unallowable. It is what it is. But those two things in combination were massive momentum swings. Then they went five on four while Seth is bleeding on the other end and score.”
It certainly was a huge call/no call on the Ertel-Winslow play. The great part of Indiana high school basketball is that fans are going to be passionate. Watching those plays slowed down to ¼ speed and reviewing them over and over makes it look pretty easy. It is not that easy in real time, especially when basketball players now are throwing their heads back constantly, even where there is no contact at all.
Other thoughts and takeaways from semistate Saturday
>>>New Albany reminds of me some of the teams we have seen lose in the semistate at New Castle recently. Jeffersonville lost two years ago, then went on to win state last year. Mt. Vernon lost last year (to Jeffersonville) and is going to the state finals this year. The Bulldogs will have so much talent coming back that it could follow in those teams’ footsteps and make a run next year. Sophomore Noah Washington (22.0 ppg, 4.2 rebounds), freshman Karson Stoudemire (12.8 ppg) and junior Reece McKee (9.9 ppg, 4.6) assists) make up a strong core.
>>>New Albany’s Jones brought up an interesting point about playing two games in one day. I’m sure it comes off as sour grapes or whatever, but I’m not sure why the semistate can’t be two games on Friday night and one on Saturday. Two of his players, McKee and Stoudemire, were cramping badly in the night game. If you missed it, here is what he said:
“You can’t ask guys to play as hard as our guys play and turn around and play in four or five hours,” Jones said. “Even when Reece was out there, he was grabbing his calf every five seconds. Karson was grabbing his calf every five seconds. We did everything we could all afternoon. We hydrated, we iced, we laid around and did everything possible. It’s just hard to ask guys to play as hard as our guys play and have a five-hour turnaround.”
>>>All of the No. 1 teams are gone after 3A top-ranked Silver Creek was bounced by No. 3 Cathedral 73-68 in the semistate championship at Seymour. Fishers (4A), Paoli (2A) and Kouts (A) were the other No. 1 squads.
“I think we showed ‘em what we’re really made of,” said Cathedral senior Keaton Aldridge, who finished with 29 points. “Most people had Silver Creek winning or beating us. They were saying they were unbeatable or they couldn’t lose. Their only loss was to a great Crown Point team going to state (in 4A). We knew if we did what we had to do we had a chance.”
Cathedral took out both No. 1 and No. 2, beating second-ranked Princeton 85-64 in the early game at Seymour.
>>>How great is that Class 2A crowd going to be on Saturday? No. 3 Westview (27-1) and No. 4 Parke Heritage (26-4) should both bring a lot of people to Gainbridge Fieldhouse for the second game of the day. When Parke Heritage made its only other state finals appearance in 2021, it was the COVID year and crowds were limited. The Wolves lost 55-40 to Fort Wayne Blackhawk Christian.
“When we finally got back to the locker room (Saturday) night after all the net cutting and all of that, the one thing I talked about with our guys is that I’m happy for them and feel sad for our 2021 team,” Parke Heritage coach Rich Schelsky said. “These guys get to experience the full IHSAA state finals. The 2021 team, because of COVID, there’s a lot of stuff those guys didn’t get to do this week that these guys are going to get to do.”
STATE FINALS SCHEDULE
Saturday
At Gainbridge Fieldhouse
Session 1
9:30 a.m.: Public gates open
10:30 a.m.: Class A State Championship, Triton (25-3) vs. Barr-Reeve (27-1)
Approx. 12:45 p.m.: Class 2A State Championship, Westview (27-1) vs. Parke Heritage (26-4)
Session 2
5 pm: Public gates open
6 pm: Class 3A State Championship, Cathedral (24-5) vs. New Haven (22-7)
Approx. 8:15 pm ET: Class 4A State Championship, Crown Point (25-1) vs. Mt. Vernon (27-3)
Call Star reporter Kyle Neddenriep at (317) 444-6649. Get IndyStar’s high school coverage sent directly to your inbox with the High School Sports newsletter. And be sure to subscribe to our new IndyStarTV: Preps YouTube channel.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: On Mt. Vernon’s weird and wild win and 5 more thoughts from semistate Saturday
Reporting by Kyle Neddenriep, Indianapolis Star / Indianapolis Star
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
