HURON - After playing tight through the first half and early in the third quarter, the Mitchell Kernels used a 17-0 run in the third quarter to put away the Huron Tigers, coming away with a 60-48 win Friday at Huron Arena in the season opener for both teams.

The amount of starters lost by both teams was obvious early on as neither team really had a player step up and take control of the ball in the offense. After multipl empty trips for both teams, Mitchell’s Gavin Hinker made a nice cut and hit a reverse layup for the first points of the game.

CJ Gainey opened scoring for the Tigers on the next trip down the court, draining a three. After a pair of empty possessions, Mitchell’s Markus Talley made an excellent defensive play to come up with the steal and Colton Smith finished with the dunk to give Mitchell a 4-3 lead.

Landen Soulek came off the bench to nail a three for the Kernels and on the next possession, Talley blew by his defender and put in the layup to push the Mitchell lead out to 9-3.

That’s when things turned around for the Tigers. Gainey squared up more than five feet behind the three-point line and drained a long three. After Parker Mandel scored for Mitchell on a backdoor cut, the Tigers did the rest of the scoring in the quarter.

Gainey hit another three, and then the Mitchell defense sucked out to the arc, opening up a backdoor cut for Blake Ellwein. Trace Wenz made a bucket to close out the quarter’s scoring, giving Huron a 13-11 lead at the end of the frame.

The quarter break seemingly dried up both teams’ ability to score as Smith drew a two-shot foul on Holden Hegg, Hegg’s fourth in the quarter, halfway through the quarter to hit the first points of the quarter. Gavin Soukup, one of two seniors on the Mitchell roster, nailed a three from the top of the key and Talley got past his defender and pulled up for a one-hand jumper from the side of the backboard to make it 18-13 Mitchell.

That’s when the shooting of Huron freshman Anderson Porisch took off as the 6’3” guard nailed a three, then got a put back bucket, and sliced to the hoop for a bucket to get the Tigers within two at 22-20.

Colton McNeil hit one free throw as he was fouled driving after a steal, leading to the 22-21 Mitchell lead at half.

The Tigers attacked the hoop coming out of the break, with Gavin Moeding scoring the first points of the second half, getting an “and one” after bucketing a drive to the hoop. After Smith nailed a short hook to put him into double-figure scoring, Ellwein answered with a three, giving Huron a 27-24 lead.

It was really downhill from there, as Carson Evans hit a short jumper on an offensive rebound to end a 17-0 Mitchell burst. Ellwein was able to get into the lane for a bucket at the end of the quarter, but Mitchell took a 45-31 lead into the final quarter.

Porisch opened the scoring in the second half, getting a free throw and then nailing a three. Elwein got to the hoop on a drive and Gainey and Moeding each cut through the lane, getting the Tigers within 51-43, but then the Tigers’ shooting went dry.

The Kernels closed out a 60-48 win.

Mitchell moves to 1-0 behind 18 points from Smith. Talley added 17 points and Soukup hit three 3-point baskets on his way to 16 points. Hinker led the Kernels with seven rebounds.

The Tigers fall to 0-1 despite a balanced scoring attack led by 13 points from Blake Ellwein. Porisch and Gainey each added 11 points and Porisch led the Tigers with seven rebounds.

Huron coach Tim Buddenhagen stated that the defensive game plan wasn’t what he hoped.

“We talked about limiting their ‘big three’ (Talley, Smith, Soukup), but they scored 51 of the 60,” Buddenhagen stated. “We have to take care of our assignments and then run our offense.”

The offense struggled with finding movement, Buddenhagen noted.

“There’s got to be more cutting, more screening. We don’t have that other action to go to,” Buddenhagen explained. “We’ve got to slow down and think about what we want to do.”

Huron took the JV game 45-35 but fell in the sophomore game 57-47.

The Tigers travel to Brookings Tuesday.

Mitchell     11 22 45 60
Huron     13 21 31 48

Mitchell (1-0): Landen Soulek 1 0-0 3, Markus Talley 7 2-2 17, Colton Smith 5 8-11 18, Parker Mandel 1 0-0 2, Gavin Soukup 5 3-3 16, Sutton Thompson 1 0-2 2, Gavin Hinker 1 0-0 2. Totals: 21 13-18 60.

Huron (0-1): Trace Wenz 1 0-0 2, Colton McNeil 1 2-3 4, Gavin Moeding 1 3-3 5, CJ Gainey 4 0-0 11, Blake Ellwein 4 4-4 13, Anderson Porisch 4 1-2 11, Carsen Evans 1 0-0 2. Totals: 16 10-12 48.

FG: M - 21/49 43%; H - 16/48 33%. 3-pt FG: M - 5/21 (Soukup 3, Talley, Soulek); H - 6/23 (Gainey 3, Porisch 2, Ellwein). Rebounds: M 36 (Hinker 7), H 27 (Porisch 7). Assists: M 12 (Talley 4), H 7 (Moeding 3). Fouls: M 15, H 19 (Holden Hegg out).