MANSFIELD, Ohio — If the first couple of weeks are any indication, Mansfield Senior guard Erica Johnson’s knee is just fine.
The Richland Bank Athlete of the Week, Johnson scored 25 points and grabbed 10 rebounds as the Tygers knocked off Shelby 74-49 last week. That performance came on the heels of a near quadruple-double in Senior High’s season-opening 57-35 win over Bucyrus.
The 6-foot-1 junior had 28 points, 11 rebounds, nine assists and eight steals.
“Her knee is feeling better, but we are taking it one day at a time,” Johnson’s father, Eric, said. “It was hurting her after the Shelby game, but we iced it and she feels better now.”
A junior, Johnson was off to a strong start last winter before suffering a season-ending knee injury after just three games. She was averaging 18.7 points a game.
Senior High, which won all three games with Johnson in the lineup, finished the season 11-13 overall and 5-9 in the Ohio Cardinal Conference.
“We really missed her last year,” Senior High coach Todd Krill said. “She does so many things for us. She is a big guard who can score, rebound and distribute the ball.”
Krill and his coaching staff are trying to figure out way to take some of the load off Johnson, who has verbally committed to Ohio University.
“We will take her off the perimeter at times and move her to the post,” Krill said. “She is off to a great start.”
The Tygers have a rugged upcoming schedule. Senior High is at West Holmes on Thursday and at Akron St. Vincent-St. Mary on Saturday. Mansfield Senior hosts Orrville on Dec. 10 and visits Wooster on Dec. 12.
“We face three of the best teams in the OCC in the next couple of weeks and our one non-conference game is at St Vincent-St. Mary,” Krill said. “We will find out where we stand in the next couple of weeks.”
Of course, having Johnson on the floor will certainly help.
“She was away from basketball for a long time while she recovered, but she has a very high basketball IQ,” Krill said. “She sees things out on the floor that a lot of players her age don’t see.
“She is a smart player and she is getting better every day. We just have to keep her healthy because we run a lot of things through her.”
