By Brennan Stebbins (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
Aurora came into Friday night’s district championship against Mt. Vernon with back-to-back district runner-up finishes.
The Houn’ Dawgs made sure it would be three in a row.
Top-seeded Aurora built a 49-10 lead by halftime and then cruised to a 70-29 victory over second seed Mt. Vernon in the Class 4 District 12 championship at Monett on Friday night.
Aurora advances to the sectional round where the Houn’ Dawgs will play at Logan-Rogersville on Monday.
“This was our third year in this game and as a coach I was worried about nerves, coming out kind of flat or tight but it was just the opposite and these games are big,” Aurora coach Adam Thornhill said. “Congrats to Mt. Vernon, they had a great season and made it to the district championship game, but you could tell we were a little bit looser because we’ve been here before and they may have been a little bit tighter because they hadn’t. Just a terrific start for our guys. It didn’t come down to us being much better, we were just loose. I loved our energy.”
Aurora (20-8) beat the Mountaineers by 10 points in late January. On Friday the Houn’ Dawgs scored 11 points before Mt. Vernon’s first basket, a layup by junior Hunter Dawson, and then they scored 19 more before the end of the first quarter to lead 30-2 after eight minutes.
By the time the Mountaineers scored for the second time, Aurora led 37-2 and there was 3:31 remaining in the first half, with Mt. Vernon having already reached double digits in turnovers.
“We guarded really, really hard,” Thornhill said. “Holding them to two points in the first quarter was, man, impressive. Coach Kyran Dixon is our assistant coach and he’s in charge of our defense so a lot of credit goes to him. To hold a good team like that and with a great player like Jarrett Zerby to two points in the first quarter was impressive. A lot of credit to coach Dixon and the guys defensively.”
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Aurora made all four of its 3-pointers in the first quarter, and senior Cameron Whitener and sophomore Kaden Cole each scored 9 points in the period, and senior Landon Boatwright and junior Thomas Lara each added 5.
The team’s defense only allowed two field goals in the first half––the Dawson layup in the first quarter, and then a 3-pointer by Zerby in the second. The only other scoring was three free throws by Zerby and two by senior Juliun Hernandez.
“That game in January we battled foul trouble throughout but our guys have gotten a lot smarter about how we guard,” Thornhill said. “We’re super aggressive defensively, we’re super aggressive offensively. Sometimes that gets us into a little foul trouble. We were smart about how we guarded.”
The 29 points allowed was a season low for Aurora, by 8 points, while the team reached the 70-point mark for the sixth game in a row and 17th time this season.
Mt. Vernon, 18-9, also scored a season-low total, and allowed 70-plus points for just the fourth time.
The championship was a long time coming for Aurora, which hadn’t won a district since 2009. It’s just the fourth district title in school history.
“Our seniors Jayden Carpenter, Landon Boatwright and Cameron Whitener have been tremendous leaders for us,” Thornhill said. “I’ve had a lot of good teams but leadership is a separator, having good, internal, mature leadership and those guys give us that. It’s been a great year and those guys are a big reason why.”
Whitener led Aurora with 15 points and was one of four Houn’ Dawgs in double figures. Boatwright and Cole each scored 13 and Carpenter scored 10. Junior Cannon Thornhill added 6 points, Lara scored 5, and sophomores Greyson Fleetwood and Toa Yandall scored 4 apiece.
For Mt. Vernon, Zerby led the way with 10, Hernandez scored 7, Dawson scored 5, senior Luke Robbins scored 4 and senior Quinton Smiles scored 3.
