ONTARIO, Ohio — Ontario guard Quan Jackson’s only field goal of the night was as difficult as it was dramatic.
After being held scoreless for the first 31 minutes and 59 seconds, Jackson hit a double-clutch 3-pointer under heavy pressure at the buzzer as the Warriors knocked off Mansfield Senior 52-50 in front of a big opening-night crowd at the O-Rena.
It was the first meeting between the two Richland County powers in at least 40 years.
Mario Young gave Senior High a 50-49 lead with an acrobatic leaner in the lane with less than 10 seconds to play.
The Warriors pushed the ball up the floor and Trey Jordan found Jackson on the left wing. The 6-foot Jackson had to adjust the shot in mid-air as the 6-foot-3 Young closed in to contest.
“I had to double-clutch it because a guy was coming. I just released it and it went in,” Jackson said. “It was all luck, basically.”
The Warriors had a timeout remaining but opted not to use it after Young’s go-ahead bucket.
“In an end-of-game situation, if there’s more than five seconds (left on the clock) and we can get it in and go with it, we go with it,” Ontario coach Joe Balogh said. “If you call timeout, you let the defense get set.
“Quan’s shot was well-contested. It’s just one of those things where … you’re better to be lucky than good at that point.”
Carrying the Load: Young was virtually unstoppable. He scored 19 points on 9 of 18 shooting, grabbed 18 rebounds, pocketed seven steals and had a spectacular and-one dunk in the first half. His go-ahead bucket in the final 10 seconds came against 6-foot-5 Ontario power forward Andrew Rathburn, who forced Young to alter his release point.
“I don’t think we gave him anything easy,” Balogh said. “It was a tough shot in the lane, but he has the ability that he can get in the lane and make those kind of plays.”
For his part, Rathburn was every bit as dominant. He scored 19 points on 8 of 10 shooting and grabbed eight rebounds.
“Andrew was really good for us,” Balogh said. “We thought we could hurt them inside. He was really good from about 10 feet … and he also rebounded the basketball with a lot of authority.”
First-Game Jitters: Neither team shot the ball especially well. The Tygers were 19 of 58 from the floor and connected on just 1 of 14 3-pointers. The Warriors were a slightly more efficient 16 for 41 from the field, but turned the ball over 23 times.
“We told our kids after the game, the good thing was we made some bad plays but we didn’t let one bad play turn into two or three,” Balogh said. “We had a bad play there was usually something we did at the other end of the floor.
“We’ve got to be a lot better in the last three minutes of taking care of the ball.”
Corey Thomas backed Rathburn with 12 points.
Antonio Weatherspoon had eight points for the Tygers.
“Give Ontario credit,” Reese said. “I thought at some point we would hit a couple free throws or make a bucket. That didn’t happen.”
