LEXINGTON, Ohio — Jonah Yaussy needed just one second to alleviate nearly 32 minutes worth of frustration.
Lexington’s talented senior forward connected on a 3-pointer from the top of the key as time expired Wednesday night and the Minutemen remained unbeaten with a nail-biting 57-54 win over Ontario in the final game of the Richland Source NOL-OCC Challenge.
Before his last-second heroics, Yaussy had managed just four points on 2 of 4 shooting in more than 31 minutes of floor time.
“They were all over me all night with that zone they were running,” a relieved Yaussy said, “and I couldn’t make a shot, either, which didn’t help at all.”
Fantastic Finish: Ontario (7-3) led 47-41 early in the fourth quarter before Lexington (10-0) went on a 13-4 run to take a 54-51 lead on an A.J. Nickoli layup with 1:28 remaining. The Warriors responded when Trey Jordan scored on a driving layup with 57 seconds to play to make it 54-53.
On Lexington’s next possession, Jordan tied up Minutemen point guard Joey Zahn and the possession arrow favored the Warriors. Jordan’s potential game-tying shot was off, but Corey Thomas grabbed the offensive rebound and was fouled. Thomas split a pair of free throws to tie the score at 54-54 with 23.5 seconds left.
The Minutemen advanced the ball into the frontcourt and called timeout with 12.6 seconds remaining to draw up a final play.
“We wanted to have a shooter in the corner, a big down low and Jonah popping,” Lex coach Scott Hamilton said. “It was probably the first play we ran all night the way we were supposed to.”
Zahn worked off a ball screen and drove down the left side of the lane. As a pair of Ontario defenders converged on Zahn, Yaussy drifted to the top of the key. Zahn threaded a pass to the 6-foot-5 Yaussy, who lofted his shot over the outstretched arm of 6-foot-7 Logan Jones.
“Joey did a good of coming off the screen and drawing two guys,” said Yaussy, who hit 1 of 2 treys in Tuesday’s win over Norwalk. “I saw the clock running down and I knew I had to shoot it. Luckily I made it.”
It was a shot Ontario coach Joe Balogh was willing to live with.
“You’ve got to give up something and it’s better than him catching it inside or Joey getting a shot,” Balogh said. “We made them take a tough shot and he hit it. Yaussy is a veteran.
“When you are on a run like Lexington is on, you make plays like that.”
Coming-Out Party: Lex freshman Cade Stover got the start in place of the ailing Paul Hogsette and had the best game of his young career. Stover scored a game-high 20 points on 10 of 15 shooting and grabbed a game-high 12 rebounds.
“Cade is a great athlete,” Yaussy said. “He’s going to be a great player as he gets older.”
Nickoli had 16 points for the Minutemen, while Zahn added 10 points and six assists.
Learning Experience: Jordan led the Warriors with 15 points. Griffin Niss had 14 points, while Thomas had 13 points and eight rebounds.
“I’m not disappointed at all with the kids. I thought our effort was tremendous,” Balogh said. “We told them they can control their effort and energy, but you can’t always control the results.
“I think we found out a little bit about our team in these two games. We’ll come back fighting.”
