Mount Vernon wins its first regional championship in program history

ALPHARETTA, GEORGIA – For the first time in program history, Mount Vernon has its region championship.

After entering the Region 6-A Division 1 tournament as the No. 1 seed, the Mustangs took down host King’s Ridge in the semifinals and followed that up with a come-from-behind win over Mount Pisgah Saturday night to win the region championship 67-53.

The Mustangs trailed for the first 12:28 seconds before grabbing a lead late in the second quarter and never surrendering it. Head coach Tarrik Mabon gave a ton of credit to sophomore guard Pace Bottoms for his stellar shooting in the second quarter that got them the lead for good.

“That was huge,” Mabon said. “It’s a testament to hard work, but also a testament to the depth of our team. Pace stepped up and hit four big three’s in the second quarter and that changed everything. They were denying Dennis Scott, so that allowed us to put them in a position where they had to soften up the defense. That was a big deal for us.”

The Mustangs trailed 7-1 early in the first and found themselves down by seven points early in the second quarter, 20-13. After a couple of big shots from Kenneth Southall and Scott got the Mustangs to within three points, Bottoms did the rest.

The sophomore drilled four three-pointers in a span of three minutes. His second gave them their first lead of the game, 23-22 with 3:31 remaining before halftime. After a layup from Xavier Shegog, Bottoms drilled two more three’s to give them a 31-24 lead.

That capped an 18-4 run by the Mustangs to get them into halftime leading 31-26.

“We weathered the storm,” Mabon said. “One thing that we’ve been really big on this year is passion over emotion. In the past, we would get too emotional and it would affect how we play. So because we were able to weather the storm and be up at halftime, I told the guys that we were good. They kept that energy (in the second half) and toughness.”

The Patriots were able to cut the Mustangs’ lead to four points on two separate occasions in the third quarter. But both times, the Mustangs had an answer.

Leading 40-36, the Mustangs responded with a 12-2 run to end the quarter.

Scott nailed two huge three-pointers and a midrange jumper and Shegog converted an And-1 to get them into the fourth quarter with a commanding 52-38 lead.

The closest the Patriots could get in the fourth quarter was 10 points. Senior Grant Randall and sophomore Micah Tucker did everything they could to keep them in the game after combining to score 42 points in the game.

Tucker led all scorers with 31 points while Randall chipped in with 11 points, six of which came in the fourth quarter.

But Southall drilled two more threes for the Mustangs and senior Ashton Patterson scored five points, including a fastbreak dunk to end any chance of a late comeback.

Scott led the Mustangs with 16 points on four three-pointers while Patterson scored 14 and Bottoms scored 12. Southall and Shegog joined the trio in double figures with 11 points apiece.

“God is good,” Mabon said. “I’m a Christian. I’m a God-fearing guy and I’m telling you that it’s such a testament to putting God first in everything that I do. God has really blessed our program, so I give it all to him.”