MANSFIELD, Ohio — Andrew Rathburn may have been overlooked early in the season, but the Ontario junior was the center of attention Wednesday.
The rugged 6-foot-4 center scored a game-high 20 points and swiped a game-high eight rebounds as the Warriors advanced to the district title game with a 70-55 win over Northern Ohio League rival Shelby in the first game of a Division II district doubleheader at Pete Henry Gym.
The Warriors (24-1) will play Sandusky for the district title at 7 p.m. Saturday at Mansfield Senior. The Blue Streaks, who lost twice to Ontario during the regular season, rallied for a 58-55 win over Lexington in Wednesday’s nightcap.
Rathburn scored eight of his 20 points in the third quarter as Ontario opened a comfortable 49-30 advantage midway through the period.
“The way Shelby pressures the ball, it leaves the backside wide open,” Rathburn said. “It worked out for me tonight.”
The beneficiary of some nifty interior passing, Rathburn was 10 for 12 from the floor. What’s more, he did all of his damage in slightly more than 20 minutes of floor time.
“That’s as good as he has been,” Ontario coach Joe Balogh said. “When you have guards like Trey (Jordan) and Lenell (Shelby), who can create and get to the lane, a lot of times his baskets are dishes and layups.
“Tonight he showed how he has worked in the post. We tell him to catch it and check because early in the year he wanted to be so quick with everything. Tonight he showed really good patience, catching it in the post, reading the defense and making a move. When he was one-on-one tonight he was hard to stop.”
Whippet Rally: Trailing by 19 with less than 12 minutes remaining, the Whippets made a final stand during an eight-minute stretch bridging the third and fourth quarters. Shelby outscored the Warriors 25-11 during the span, cutting Ontario’s lead to 60-55 on a Brandon Schneider 3-pointer with 3:24 remaining. That was as close as Shelby would get, however, as the Warriors closed the game with 10 straight points.
“All year we’ve done that against some really good teams,” Shelby coach Troy Schwemley said. “In a way this game tonight was very similar to our other two. About the time you think they are about ready to blow us out, we keep battling and give ourselves a chance.”
Schneider and Cody Stine each scored 11 points for the Whippets. Brennan Armstrong and Davey Hipp added nine points apiece, while Corey Cox had eight.
“They play that style where they hit a couple 3s and get a lot of energy,” Balogh said. “When you get to the district, every team answers runs and I thought we answered every Shelby run tonight.
“I think I was panicky more than our players panicked. The poise that our kids showed throughout the game was tremendous.”
Paul Homan backed Rathburn with 13 points for Ontario. Jordan and Griffin Niss each had nine, while Shelby added seven.
Out of Bounds: Ontario scored on six of eight baseline or sideline out of bounds plays Wednesday night, accounting for 13 points.
“We work on it a lot,” Rathburn said. “The first game against Shelby we were really good on out of bounds plays.”
Balogh didn’t always emphasize out of bounds plays. A longtime coaching friend, Dover’s Bob Von Kaenel, helped him see the light.
“Early in my coaching career I didn’t think baseline out of bounds plays were that important,” Balogh said. “We scrimmage (Dover) every year and they would just pound us in scrimmages with that.
“The comment he made to me about 15 to 20 years ago is, ‘It’s an opportunity to score.’ That is the approach we take. We’re not real complicated with what we do, but our kids understand that if we execute it’s big for us.”
Injury update: Lenell Shelby tweaked his left ankle with 25 seconds remaining. He had to be helped off the floor.
“I think Lenell is good,” Balogh said. “He tweaked his ankle about a month ago. We’ll have our trainer work his magic and he’ll be ready to go.
“He’s not going to sit a district final game, I’ll guarantee you that.”
