East Newton gets taste of redemption, knocks off Mount Vernon for district title

Mar. 6—GRANBY, Mo. — Payback has been on the mind of the East Newton boys basketball team since Dec. 19, 2020.

That day marked a gut-wrenching overtime loss to rival Mount Vernon in the Four-States Challenge at Webb City High School.

Fast forward 75 days later, the Patriots have their revenge.

Top-seeded East Newton knocked off second-seeded Mount Vernon 66-58 to claim the Class 4 District 12 championship on Friday night in front of a capacity crowd at East Newton High School.

And the taste of redemption couldn't have been sweeter.

"It tastes amazing," Patriots senior Lucas Kimbrough said. "They have beaten us all four years I've been in high school. They are a great team. They have always been a great team. They are really hard-working, but we came out on top tonight and that's all that matters to me."

With the win, East Newton advances to sectionals and travels to Ava at 6 p.m. Tuesday. The Patriots have their first district title berth since 2016.

"We kind of got the monkey off our back a little bit," East Newton coach Kyle Fields said. "Mount Vernon played really well against us the first time. We were ready. Our kids were hungry. Mount Vernon's a good team. They do things right. They are well-coached. Their kids play extremely hard. Watching the game tonight, it was a hard-fought game. It was physical. Hats off to them. They had a really good year. It was hard for us to get it even in our home building, but we found a way."

After jumping out to an 11-9 lead after the first quarter, East Newton caught fire from downtown in the second quarter. The Patriots hit five 3-pointers in that quarter alone to build a 32-15 advantage at the break.

All of that started when Kelton Sorrell hit a corner trey to boost East Newton's lead to 14-9 at the 7:27 mark. After Kyson Lahman hit a mid-range jumper, Connor Killion followed with a baseline triple to make the score 19-9 with 6:02 left in the first half.

Three minutes later, Lahman found Tanner Youngblood wide-open on the right wing to increase the Patriots' lead to 24-12. and Lucas Kimbrough, who hit a 3 at the 2:50 mark, capped a 21-6 quarter from East Newton with a triple that banked in at the buzzer.

"We shot it really good because they were packing their zone in," Fields said. "The 3-point shot was there early. We knew if we got some good looks we had to take them. We hit them early, and I think that was a big key to the game."

But Mount Vernon certainly went down fighting.

Mason Ballay scored 17 of his game-high 30 points in the fourth quarter to will the Mountaineers to within 10 in the closing minutes, but Kimbrough and Youngblood iced it with late free throws down the stretch.

"I'm biased, but Mason's a warrior," Mount Vernon coach Mike Ray said. "We knew he was going to show up to play. If you have seen him play, that's just how he is. He did not want this to be his last game for sure."

Kimbrough knocked a free throw at the 3:22 mark, which allowed him to become the third East Newton player to reach 1,000 points this season. He joined pretty good company with teammates Killion and Lahman.

"I knew I had to score 13, but that really wasn't on my mind," said Kimbrough, who finished with a team-high 20 points. "I just wanted to win a district championship. It was intense (when I hit that free throw). The crowd was freakin' crazy. It was ecstatic. It felt amazing. I couldn't help but smile... It was awesome."

"I'm proud of our whole team and those three," Fields added. "They are very deserving. I'm glad it's not over yet."

Youngblood added 15 points for the Patriots while Killion chipped in 11.

Tristan Jones was the only other player in double figures for Mount Vernon (16-8).

"We would have liked to have played three, four more minutes," Ray said. "Credit goes to East Newton. They got us down 17. That was a good job by them. We could never get over that hump. I was proud of our kids. They battled, competed hard. I thought we made East Newton win it instead of just giving it to them. I was proud of our kids effort."