MADISON TOWNSHIP, Ohio — On a night when Madison honored its 2009 Ohio Cardinal Conference championship team, the 2015-16 Rams battled their way back into title contention.
Billy Buckley scored a game-high 24 points and Kyle Jackson scored six of his eight points in overtime as the Rams upset crosstown rival Mansfield Senior 68-64 at Madison Middle School.
Senior High, Lexington and Wooster are tied atop the OCC standings at 5-1. Madison is a game back at 4-2.
The win capped a stormy week for the Rams, who played without head coach Tim Mergel for a second straight game. Mergel was suspended after picking up a pair of technicals at the conclusion of last Saturday’s controversial loss at St. Peter’s.
Assistant coach Ben Parr, a former girls head coach at Madison, filled in for Mergel at Mount Vernon on Wednesday (a 55-51 Madison loss) and again Friday.
“I think we did a pretty good job of getting it done without (Mergel),” Buckley said. “He is a great coach. He backed us up over at St. Pete’s and we got his back here.”
Fourth-Quarter Frenzy: Madison took a 51-43 lead after a Jacob Koehler offensive rebound and putback with 5:02 remaining in regulation before Mansfield Senior turned up the heat. The Tygers, who played a straight man-to-man defense much of the evening, went to a fullcourt trapping defense and forced four turnovers down the stretch.
The Rams did themselves no favors, making just 3 of 9 free throws in the final 1:41. Buckley split a pair of freebies with 36.2 seconds remaining to give the Rams a 54-51 lead, but Mario Young knocked down a 3-pointer with 16 seconds remaining to tie the game.
Madison called timeout to set up a final play, but Tyrell Ajian was tied up by Young as he tried to get off a potential game-winning shot. One of the whistled a foul, but after a brief conference the three-man crew rightly called a held ball.
“We had the wrong game plan. I screwed it up,” Senior High coach J.T. Reese said. “I waited too long to muck the game up. We needed to (go to the trapping press), but I thought we had a team to guard them with a traditional defense and we didn’t.”
Overtime: Jackson came to life during the four-minute extra session. The sophomore scored on a pair of driving layups to give the Rams a 58-54 lead.
“Jackson is one of those kids who is sneaky athletic. He doesn’t get enough credit for his athletic ability,” Parr said. “He does a good job of getting to the rim. Coach Mergel and I thought this might be his night to shine because we knew that they were going to try to take the ball out of the hands of Buckley and Tyrell.
“He elevates better than people think and he can get it up there around the rim.”
Madison pushed its lead to 61-55 on a Koehler layup with 2:03 to play, but Senior High’s David Hall connected on a 3-pointer to make it 61-58 with 1:41 to go. A pair of free throws by Mansfield Senior’s Raheem Clark made it 61-60 with 54.6 seconds to play, but Madison connected on 7 of 10 free throws down the stretch to seal it.
Leaders: Ajian backed Buckley with 15 points and five assists, while Koehler had 12 points. Clark led the Tygers with 16 points. Hall had 15, nine rebounds and four steals, while Young added 14 points and five assists.
Double Weekend: Madison is at Orrville on Saturday, while Mansfield Senior hosts Lexington.
