MANSFIELD, Ohio — Madison returned to its miserly ways Tuesday night.
Four days after giving up 63 points in a season-opening loss to Shelby, the Rams turned up the heat defensively in a 53-33 win over Clear Fork in the Ohio Cardinal Conference opener at Madison Middle School.
The Rams allowed just 43 points a game and surrendered 60 or more points only four times all of last season.
“We hang our hat on defense. We gave up 63 points in the Shelby game and that’s not who we are,” Mergel said. “We’ve really got to concentrate on keeping the basketball in front of us. We got beat on some dribble penetration against Shelby. Tonight our effort was better on our defensive rotations.”
Quick Start: The Rams (1-1, 1-0) raced out to an 18-8 first-quarter lead and were never seriously threatened. Tyrell Ajian scored nine of his game-high 15 points in the opening period.
“Going against a player like Ajian, we did everything we could to stop him,” Clear Fork coach Steven Bechtel said. “I thought we contained him the best we could, but they had some other kids step up.”
Senior Deion Miller backed Ajian with 13 points. Nick Smith added nine.
“Deion did not looked rushed,” Mergel said. “When he shot the ball, he was calm, cool and collected. I think the game is starting to slow down for him.
“We’re going to lean on Tyrell, but we can’t expect him to score 20 or 30 points a game. Other guys are going to have to make shots.”
Perfect: The Rams made all 13 of their free throw attempts Tuesday night. Madison was 6 for 16 from the stripe in the loss to Shelby.
“It was quite an improvement from Friday,” Mergel said. “We know how important free throw shooting is. I was very pleased with our performance at the line.”
Youth Movement: The Colts (0-1, 0-1) have only one senior on the roster. Clear Fork started three juniors, a sophomore and a freshman.
“We knew coming into the season we were going to be inexperienced,” Bechtel said. “We’re going to need contributions from everyone because we don’t have one guy we can lean on. I thought we shared the ball well tonight. We had some open looks, we just didn’t make them.”
Chance Barnett led the Colts with 10 points. Daniel Spencer added seven.
Next: Clear Fork hosts Lexington on Friday, while Madison welcomes Ashland
