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THE POSEY COUNTY NEWS
We are Posey County's Definitive Source for News in the Mount Vernon, New Harmony, Poseyville, Saint Philip, Saint Wendel and Wadesville areas. Period.
Posey County Sports
Vikings have edge in county freshman
By Steve Joos
‘’Freshman basketball players always find a way to surprise you, whether
it’s for the good or the bad. You should always expect the unexpected.’’
That’s how North Posey freshman boys’ hoop coach Jeremy Shipp summed up his
team’s season so far.
The Viking frosh went on a 6-0 run early in the third quarter of last week’s
game at Mount Vernon, and went from there to pull away from the freshman
Wildcats 42-35.
“To their credit they found another way to win tonight,” Shipp said. “In the
second half, they brought the intensity a bit more and started moving their
feet When they bring that effort and that fire, good things always seem to
happen for them. They’ve just got to remember to bring that sort of fire all
the time.”
Shipp felt that his team has played better games, comparing the effort to
that of the first half of the freshman team‘s recent overtime win at South
Spencer.
On the other hand, Shipp added, North Posey followed that first half up with
their best basketball of the season and continued it on into an overtime to
pull out a win.
“The kids are doing pretty well as knowing their roles as a team,” Shipp
said. “They’ve just got to be more patient at moving the ball and doing it
more crisply with their passing. They should be able to defeat most any team
with their play.”
Shipp hopes this team will continue to work together and stay together,
adding that each member of the squad works on their game and is capable in
different aspects of the game.
Mount Vernon coach Doug Blair saw more than just one stretch as the
difference in the game.
“We battled, we played hard, but North Posey just out-executed us,” Blair
said. “All the 50-50 balls, North Posey got, they were diving all over the
place, we were about a step too slow. They get eight points off their free
throws because we don’t block out and we missed all eight of our free
throws. That was the game right there. We allowed them to hit eight putbacks
off their missed free throws and we didn’t hit any. That’s the ball game
right there.”
Damon Cardin pumped in 21 points to lead the North Posey frosh, while James
Marshall added 11. Jason Cumbee put in five tallies, while Aaron Droste and
Bryce Martin each chipped in two.
Blair was impressed with Cardin and the rest of the frosh Vikings.
Cardin is a physical player who sees the floor well and is a good passer,
the frosh Wildcats’ coach said, adding that he is capable of carrying a
team.
“In the first half, we did a better job of cutting off some of those
passes,” Blair said. “But he (Cardin) is so strong that when they got it
inside to him in that third quarter, he did what he does best and that’s
finish. We just couldn’t answer.”
The season hasn’t been a very successful one for Mount Vernon, which has won
just one game heading into last week.
“It’s been a bumpy road,” Blair said. “We’re not going to lie. We lost our
top four players (to the Wildcat reserve team), so we’ve got a group of guys
who have played a season where they’re adjusting to roles that they just
haven’t played before and this is the highest competition they’ve ever
played.”
That competition includes the likes of Jasper, Reitz, Bosse, Harrison and
Vincennes, all of which are stronger teams than Mount Vernon, according to
Blair.
“We’ve ve just got to try to improve,” he said. “Did we improve tonight?
Yes. We did better than in our first game with North Posey. We just made too
many of those mistakes which we can’t make if we want to win many games.”
As he did in December, Hunter Brooks paced the frosh with 16 points, while
Austin Krizan added seven and Noah Roberts six. Vince Stevens scored four
tallies and Mitchell Jackson put in two.
