East Newton avenges earlier loss with district win over Mt. Vernon

img_5065-19

By Brennan Stebbins (For OzarksSportsZone.com)

When the teams first met more than two months ago, Mt. Vernon handed East Newton its first loss of the season with a 61-57 win in overtime.

The stakes were much higher for Friday’s rematch.

East Newton built a 17-point lead and then hung on at the free throw line to end the Mountaineers’ season with a 66-58 win in the Class 4 District 12 championship in front of a home crowd.

“Kind of got the monkey off our back a little bit with Mt. Vernon, and they played really well against us the first time,” East Newton coach Kyle Fields said. “We were ready, we were hungry. Our kids were ready. But what a fun night.”

The Patriots earned their first district title since 2016 in the process and improved to 25-2 on the season.

After building a huge first-half lead, East Newton opened the fourth quarter with two free throws to make it a 48-31 game. It got closer from there.

Mt. Vernon needed a minute and a half to cut it to single digits, thanks in part to three pointers by seniors Mason Ballay and Curt Wendler. Free throws by Ballay made it 50-41 with 6:20 remaining.

It got down to eight points with 3:51 on the clock after junior Tristan Jones grabbed his own miss and scored to make it 53-45. Another three by Ballay at the 2:25 mark made it 55-48.

Ballay’s third triple of the quarter cut it to 60-53 with 1:20 to go, and in the final minute junior Kai Brown made two free throws to cut it to 61-55. It was 62-56 after a freebie by senior Payton Presnall with 18 seconds left, and 64-58 after a Ballay field goal with 12 seconds remaining.

CLICK HERE FOR PHOTOS OF THE GAME

East Newton managed to hang on despite making just one field goal in the fourth quarter. The Patriots did it at the free throw line – taking an impressive 30 attempts and making 18 of them.

Senior Lucas Kimbrough did most of the damage. He made 11-of-16 attempts in the fourth quarter alone and surpassed 1,000 career points with 3:22 remaining while extending the Patriots lead to 10 points.

Senior Connor Killion had the lone field goal.

“Just some sheer will even with missing some free throws late,” Fields said. “We had a chance to kind of extend the lead and maybe put it away a little earlier. We found some stops. We made it really hard on their three-point shooters, especially Mason Ballay, and he hit some really tough ones. We found a way late to make a few free throws and get some stops.”

“We’d like to be able to play three or four more minutes but credit goes to East Newton, they got us down 17,” Mt. Vernon coach Mike Ray said. “That was a good job by them and we just never could get over that hump there. I was very proud of our kids. They battled, competed hard and I thought we made East Newton win it instead of just giving it to them so I was proud of our kids there.”

Ballay had a heroic effort in the loss, scoring 17 points in the fourth quarter and finishing with 28.

“Well I’m biased but he’s a warrior,” Ray said. “We knew he was going to show up to play. If you’ve seen him play that’s kind of how he is. He did not want this to be his last game for sure.”

It was just an 11-9 game after a quarter, but East Newton outscored Mt. Vernon 21-6 in the second quarter with hot shooting from three-point range. The Patriots made five triples in the second quarter – one each by Killion, junior Kelton Sorrell and Kimbrough, and two by senior Tanner Youngblood.

It was a 32-15 game at the half after Youngblood banked in a three at the buzzer. The Mountaineers cut it to 12 twice in the third quarter.

“We shot it really good,” Fields said. “They’re packing their zone in. The three-point shot was there early. We knew if we got some good looks we had to take them so maybe they’d come get us and open things up on the inside and we were able to hit them early. I think that was a big key to the game is hitting those six three’s in the first half and maybe getting some post points in the second half.”

Kimbrough led East Newton with 20 points. Youngblood scored 15 and Killion had 11.

Jones added 12 points for Mt. Vernon, which finished 16-8.

“Our guys weren’t going to quit, we knew that,” Ray said. “Now whether or not we could get it close… we have championship kids but whether or not you win the championship – they were going to fight and compete. That’s just part of the DNA of our program.”

“It was a hard fought game, it was physical,” Fields said. “Hats off to them, a really good year. It was hard for us to get it even in our home building but we found a way.”

East Newton will face Ava on Tuesday in the sectional round.

Related Posts

Loading...