By CRAIG ADKINS
It was Senior Day at The Mill on Saturday for a pair of Miller basketball players, along with manager Sean O’Reilly and there’s no better way to celebrate seniors than with a win.
Great ball movement and a consistent barrage of scoring would help the Millers pull away in the fourth for a 63-46 matinee victory over Mount Vernon.
For the first 90 seconds of the game, it was a defensive standstill before Abby Haley took a pass in the right corner from Mallory Johnson and drained a three for an early lead 3-0 for Noblesville.
Mount Vernon would take their first-year lead on consecutive buckets from Sophia Willams and Abby Worley at 6-5, but two Johnson free throws put Noblesville in front 7-6 with 1:57 left in the first. Maddie Knight scored five straight points of her own for a six point lead of 12-6 and the Millers held onto a 13-8 after one.
The Marauders woke up offensively and put a dent in the deficit, spreading out their offense, chipping away slowly. An 11-6 run would tie things up at 19-19 late in the first half.
Free throws became a common theme in the final minutes of the second and make up the majority of Noblesville’s scoring and it was all the Millers could do to fend off the Mount Vernon attack.
The score would be tied at 22 from a couple Emily Kiser free throws and the lead went back to Mount Vernon by two as Tessa Freeman made two of her own. Haley sank two from the charity stripe in the final second of the half to tie it through two, 24-24.
Emily Kiser would get the Millers going in the third quarter, taking a pass from Knight, and quickly laying it off the glass and in. That basket would tie her for fifth on the all-time Noblesville girls basketball scoring list with Jenny Horn (’82).
Sydnee Perry came off the Mount Vernon bench to and converted an old-fashioned three-point play and a 27-26, but that wouldn’t last long.
Johnson scored on a driving layup that would give the Millers a 28-27 edge and the momentum shift they needed. The Millers tried to lengthen their lead, but the Marauders wouldn’t go away just yet.
The lead would change hands before the end of the third with another connection of Knight to Kiser for a one point Miller cushion 37-36 after three periods.
The visitors would take one last lead before the tide would turn the Millers’ fortune on Senior Day.
Mount Vernon scored the first four of the fourth, but that seemed to only fuel the fire for Noblesville for the remainder of the game.
Knight and Johnson continued their combo scoring of late, as they would knock down five 3-pointers between the two, completely taking Mount Vernon out of their defensive scheme.
“Well, we woke up in the fourth quarter,” said Noblesville head coach Donna Buckley on her team’s wake-up call in the fourth quarter.
“Senior Night’s tough. You have so many emotions that go into the game. The fourth quarter, we finally came out and relaxed and played real well,” Buckley continuing on her team’s production in the final quarter that put away the Marauders.
Ball movement was extremely key in Noblesville’s pursuit of the win and Mount Vernon just couldn’t find ways to stop the Millers’ quickness down the stretch.
“We made some shots and all of the sudden, you can see everybody relax. It was ball movement and shots go down and from there into a blowout situation,” said Buckley on Noblesville’s fourth quarter scoring spree that put the game out of reach for Mount Vernon.
“I honestly thought we were uptight most of the game. It’s Senior Night and you wanna send your seniors out in the right way,” said Buckley on the importance of winning on Senior Night.
After Knight’s three tied the game for the final time at 40-40, Noblesville would finish the game on a 23-6 run to solidify the Senior Day win, 63-46.
Mount Vernon (7-10) would only get Sydnee Perry into double-figures with a team-high 17 points.
Noblesville (11-7) won its fourth game in a row. The Millers were led by Kiser’s game-high 26 points, seven rebounds, four assists and four blocked shots, while also going 14-for-15 from the foul line. Kiser also passed Jenny Horn and is now the fifth all-time leading scorer in Noblesville girls basketball history with 1,197 points.
The junior duo of Knight and Johnson were at it again. Knight was on fire in the second half, draining four of her five from outside the arc for 17 points and Johnson swished a pair of treys in the fourth and finished with 11 points.
The Millers’ next game is Friday at Zionsville, with a tipoff at 6 p.m. as part of a girl-boy doubleheader.
Noblesville senior Emily Kiser scored 26 points during the Millers’ Senior Night victory over Mount Vernon Saturday at The Mill. Kiser moved into fifth place on the Noblesville all-time scoring list with 1,197 points. (Kent Graham)