Wildcat sectional effort leaves fans wondering
‘what if?’

 
Mount Vernon junior Jason Stemple gets fouled by his Memorial defender
on his way up for two points during Tuesday night’s sectional contest at Boonville.  Photo by Chris Koch

By Steve Joos
The Mount Vernon boys’ basketball team tried, they were in a position to win at the end of Tuesday’s Boonville Class 3A Sectional game with Memorial.
They came up just a little bit short.
The Wildcats rallied from a six-point deficit with two minutes to got in the fourth quarter, but Michael Nesbitt’s driving layup as time expired put the Tigers past the Cats 51-49.
“They played tremendous,” coach Tom Kopatich said of his Wildcats. “They stuck to the game plan. We had to make some adjustments after Memorial came out and hit some threes on us. But I thought we rebounded the ball well. We had the opportunity to win and it didn’t happen, but I was very proud of them.”
Actually, each team was very productive from three-point territory Tuesday night, as both Memorial and Mount Vernon drained eight treys each.
Kopatich was concerned about the way the Cats shot free throws before the game after losing a contest to the Tigers earlier in the season mostly due to free throws.
The Wildcats did better from the line Tuesday night, hitting seven of 10 charity tosses, compared to five of 10 for Memorial.
The bad news?
One of those missed free shots may have helped cost Mount Vernon the game.
The Cats were down by six points with two minutes left in the contest when they battled back to tie the game at 49-49 on a Jacob Steinhart bucket. The next trip down the court, with 8.9 seconds left on the clock, Aaron Straub rebounded a missed shot by the Tigers and drew a foul. Unfortunately for the Cats, the first free throw missed, Nesbittt grabbed the rebound and went downcourt for the shot.
“Aaron Straub did a good job inside,” Kopatich said; “He got the ball and got tied up under the basket. I told him that I wanted him at the foul line all the time, that he’d hit two in a row already. He’s was in position, but he missed. We had to come back and made sure we stopped the ball and we didn’t. It happens.”
The Wildcats missed some key shots and lost some key possessions throughout the game, the coach said, adding that the team played well, but didn’t get the job done.
Mount Vernon spent a large part of the evening trying to get back. The Wildcats took a 12-8 lead after the first quarter, only to see the Tigers go on a 19-11 run in the second period and move out to a 27-23 halftime lead. It was 40-36 after three quarters before Memorial stretched things out to 49-43 late in the game.
That’s when the Cats made their move, but they just couldn’t finish things off.
Straub and Wyatt Newman each scored 11 points for the Wildcats, while Steinhart paced Mount Vernon with 15 points. Straub and Steinhart each buried three of the team’s treys, with while Newman knocked down the other two.
Those three played accounted for 37 of Mount Vernon’s points. Broderick Miller added eight, while Jason Stemple and Nathan Reitman put in the other two.
Nesbitt paced the Tigers with 13 points, while Luke Stippler added 11.
The close out their season with a 7-17 record, but they came very close to stretching it out by at least one game.