WOOSTER — So much for holiday spirit, good will and charity.
Mansfield Senior did its best Ebenezer Scrooge impression Friday night and unlike the main character in Charles Dickens’ classic novel, “A Christmas Carol,” Senior High had no change of heart in a 57-33 win over Wooster in Ohio Cardinal Conference action.
The defensive-minded Tygers (4-0, 3-0) were downright miserly, limiting the Generals to 26 percent field goal shooting and forcing 18 turnovers. Wooster (2-4, 1-2) went more than eight minutes without a field goal during the first half as Senior High built a 32-14 halftime advantage.
“They make you work to run your offense,” Wooster coach Craig Martin said. “Their pressure takes you out of your ability to execute.
“Their pressure pushed us away from the basket. When you get pushed 10 feet beyond the 3-point line, it’s difficult to run your offense. It widens the passing lanes and allows them to get some steals and score in transition.”
Wooster grabbed a quick 3-0 lead on a Corey Beckett 3-pointer before the Tygers ran off 12 straight points during a span of less than three minutes. The spurt was highlighted by a Robert Jones 3-pointer and a Naradain James break-away dunk. The rangy 6-foot-6 junior stole the ball near midcourt, raced down the floor and dunked while being fouled by Wooster’s Drew Wharton. James sank the ensuing free throw for a traditional three-point play.
Jalen Reese’s putback at the buzzer gave the Tygers a 17-8 advantage after one quarter. By the time Reese threw down a dunk of his own with 5:15 to play in the second quarter, Senior High led 23-8 and the game was, for all intents and purposes, over.
If you can defend, defend, defend and make a team play at a speed they are not used to playing, then 18 turnovers happen,” Senior High coach J.T. Reese said. “When you have 18 turnovers happen, that leads to easy buckets.
“That is the remedy to a lot of deficiencies teams have.”
Wooster scored the first five points of the second half to cut Senior High’s lead to 32-19 before the Tygers put the hammer down. Back-to-back 3-pointers by James and Asante’ Wilder pushed Mansfield Senior’s advantage to 40-19 midway through the third quarter. The lead would balloon to as many as 28 points in the fourth quarter.
“We always tell each other in practice we have a full clip and by full clip we mean we have everything in our arsenal,” said senior Marquez Cobb, who came off the bench to score a season-high nine points. “We have whatever you could want. It’s a luxury.
“For me, it was a matter of working hard to get open. You have to trust your teammates and they have to trust you.”
Cobb scored seven of his nine points in the second half.
“He had a great night,” Reese said. “He wants to score. The ball finds him and Naradain James. It just somehow finds those two guys.”
Donovyn Benson paced the Tygers with 14 points on 7 of 10 shooting. Cobb and Jones each had nine points, while James chipped in with eight.
Jones grabbed 10 boards as the Tygers out-rebounded Wooster 31-25. Senior point guard Mario Davison, who was suspended the last two games after picking up two technicals in Mansfield Senior’s season opener, had a season-high seven assists in his return. The Tygers had 14 assists on 22 field goals.
“It’s fun to watch. That’s how we play in practice, too,” Reese said. “We pass the ball and guys run.”
Beckett led the way for Wooster with 11 points. Adam O’Brien had seven and Cameron Daugherty added six points and a team-high six rebounds.
The news wasn’t all good for the Tygers as the junior varsity team suffered a 43-41 loss. Mario Young led the Tygers with 17 points and nine rebounds.
Mansfield Senior returns to action tonight, traveling to Sandusky. Wooster plays highly-regarded Norwalk at 5:15 in the Steve Smith WQKT Holiday Hoops Classic at the College of Wooster.
“When we looked at the schedule at the beginning of the year we knew … this was a weekend we were going to see what we were made of,” Martin said.
Follow Curt Conrad on Twitter @curtjconrad.
