Some Senior Nights are special.
Win? Check. Mount Vernon topped Washington, 65-37.
Celebrate seniors? Check. The Mustangs have four seniors, and the three healthy seniors started the regular-season finale Tuesday, Feb. 18.
Special moment? Senior Cyrus Johnson, who decided to go out for basketball this year for the first time since eighth grade, scored his first varsity basket near the end of the game.
“I can’t say enough about him,” Mount Vernon Coach Derek Roberts said of Johnson. “He’s a player that the team just absolutely adores. Every single guy.
“They came to me today … ‘Coach, we’ve got to start Cyrus! We’ve got to!’
“He’d be the first one to tell you he’s just happy to be part of the team. Well, we’re happy to have him.”
“He’s a great guy,” said senior AJ McDermott, who had six points. “He’s always rooting for everyone else. To see him get his first varsity bucket, that was pretty awesome.”
Johnson and McDermott, normally reserves, were starters on Senior Night. Senior Cole Thurn, normally a starter, was hurt and stayed on the bench.
“Even on the bench, he was doing our sub chart,” Roberts said. “He wants to be part of the team; he wants to be involved.”
And then, of course, there’s senior and UNI football recruit Josef Briesemeister, who finished with 24 points and 10 rebounds.
Even with a few new faces on the court, the Mustangs played tough defense and led 14-6 after one quarter and 35-17 at half.
Washington (9-12) never made a big run in the second half. Junior Kellen Haverback added 13 points and sophomore Luke Rushford had 12 points from four 3-pointers.
It was a fortuitous end-of-season, non-conference matchup, considering the Mustangs are playing a lot of the teams from Washington’s conference, the Southeast, in their substate.
Mount Vernon opened the 3A playoffs against Fairfield (6-15) on Monday, Feb. 17. Win that, and they get either Keokuk (15-6) or Oskaloosa (7-14) at home on Thursday, Feb. 27.
Washington is among the four teams on the top of the Substate 6 bracket, with Southeast champion Fort Madison (11-9), Mount Pleasant (2-19) and No. 3 Knoxville (21-0). The Substate final is Monday, March 3.
“It was good to get that flavor of those teams, get a taste of that league,” Roberts said. “We’ve got a lot of work ahead of us. We’re fortunate to host our first game, and if we win that, host another one.”
McDermott, who has battled injuries his senior season, said the Mustangs are taking things one game at a time.
“We’ve seen our whole substate,” McDermott said. “I think we have a pretty good matchup. But we’ve been taught not to look ahead, to try to keep our focus on the next game.”