MANSFIELD — The postgame meeting was longer than usual — a lot longer — but the message was simple enough.
“We’ve got to do some soul searching,” Mansfield Senior coach J.T. Reese said.
And with good reason.
The Tygers were outscored 25-14 in the second quarter and could never dig themselves out of the hole in a stunning 55-54 loss to Orrville at Pete Henry Gym on Friday.
Senior High (13-2, 10-2) hammered the Red Riders (10-7, 6-5) 68-39 in the first meeting at Orrville in early January.
So what was the difference?
“In the first game, our guys were a little tentative,” Orrville coach Sly Slaughter said. “We got it to a 10-point game going into the fourth, but they turned up the pressure like they did tonight to us and our guys didn’t handle it well. Tonight, they handled it much better.”
Trailing 12-10 after the first quarter, the Riders could do no wrong in the second. Senior High grabbed a 19-16 lead on Donovyn Benson’s traditional three-point play with 4:56 to play in the half before Orrville closed the period on a 19-7 run. Luke Smith connected on a trio of 3-pointers and scored 11 of his 16 points in the period. Kyle Ritchie and Trevor Summers also connected on treys in the period as Orrville connected on 6 of 11 triple tries in the opening half.
“We just settled down,” Slaughter said. “We really settle down at the offensive end. Instead of one or two passes then a shot, it was four or five passes. Trevor got a couple The Tygers have earned their stripes at the defensive end all season. Senior High came in allowing 43.9 points a game through the first 14 games.
“Our team is way more mature than to let a guy come down and hit three 3s,” Reese said. “Do something different, even if we don’t call a timeout to stop it. I just think it was a lack of focus.
“We missed some defensive assignments.”
The Red Riders were 13 for 25 from the floor in the first half. Mansfield Senior, meanwhile, was just 7 for 20. The Tygers misfired on several point-blank attempts and turned the ball over 10 times in the first half, resulting in 14 Orrville points.
“Missed layups and turnovers, that will kill you,” Reese said.
The Tygers turned up the heat in the third quarter, outscoring Orrville 19-14. DeJorr Gibson kept Senior High within striking distance, scoring six of his team-high 13 points in the period.
Mansfield Senior finally pulled even at 52-52 with 3:35 remaining when Jameel Butts connected on a 3-pointer on a Mario Davison assist. The Riders reclaimed the lead when Summers split a pair of free throws with 3:02 remaining. Summers’ layup with 1:46 to play gave Orrville a 55-52 lead before Senior High’s Chek Washington drained two free throws with 1:02 remaining to make it 55-54.
The Riders called timeout with 49.9 seconds to go and tried to hold the ball near midcourt with Summers, a 6-foot-2 forward, handling the ball while being guarded by Benson, Senior High’s 6-6 center. Benson hounded Summers into a held ball and the possession arrows favored the Tygers.
Davison was whistled for a charge with 7.4 seconds to go, but the senior and three-year letterman came up with a steal with 3 seconds remaining.
After a timeout, the Tygers got the ball inbounds to Davison near midcourt, but the Riders had a foul to give and wisely used it, killing all but eight-tenths of a second. Senior High again got the ball inbounds to Davison, but his long 3-point attempt was off target.
“There were some very anxious moments, but it’s a credit to our kids. They battled and battled and battled,” Slaughter said. “I thought Kyle Ritchie executed perfectly. We had the timeout and we were talking about things and an assistant coach said, ‘Hey, we’ve got a foul to give.’ We told our guys, ‘Don’t let them get a clean look.’ Kyle Ritchie is one of the smartest guys on our team.”
Summers matched Smith with 16 points to lead Orrville.
Benson backed Gibson with 10 points and five rebounds.
“We played a lot of zone tonight, which we normally don’t do,” Slaughter said. “We looked at the stats from the first game and saw that Donovyn killed us from in the paint. Their whole team killed us from the paint and we really wanted to keep them out of the paint tonight.”
In junior varsity action, Mansfield Senior outscored Orrville 17-4 in the second quarter and held on for a 45-39 win. Raheem Clark led the Tygers with 16 points, while Marshall Levins had 12 points and 11 rebounds.
Mansfield Senior returns to action tonight, hosting Akron St. Vincent-St. Mary.
