LEXINGTON, Ohio — Jonah Yaussy and his fellow seniors made good on a six-year-old promise Friday night.
Yaussy scored a game-high 15 points and grabbed seven rebounds and the Minutemen won an outright Ohio Cardinal Conference championship with a 74-63 win over Mansfield Senior.
“I remember when we were in the seventh grade, we got beat by Madison in the OCC championship game and it was the worst feeling,” Yaussy said as he and his teammates cut down the nets at Lexington High School. “We said then we were going to win the conference championship once we got to high school. It took us until our senior year, but it’s a happy ending.”
The title was Lexington’s first since 2012, when the Minutemen shared the crown with Mansfield Senior. Lex’s last outright championship was in 2011.
“It’s a great feeling, to win it with my teammates,” Yaussy said. “I love these guys.”
On Fire: The Minutemen (20-2, 12-2) could do no wrong in the early-going. Lex connected on 8 of 11 first-quarter shots and built a 19-9 lead. The Tygers (13-8, 10-4) spent the rest of the evening playing catch-up.
“It was big for us to get off to a fast start,” Lexington coach Scott Hamilton said. “We played from behind against these guys at their place (a 77-74 overtime win in mid-January), but it helped our confidence to get off to a fast start.”
Yaussy outscored the Tygers by himself in the first quarter, scoring 11 of his 15 points. The 6-foot-5 power forward was 4 for 4 from the field and connected on all three of his free throw attempts.
Mansfield Senior, meanwhile, was just 4 for 11 from the field and turned the ball over four times, leading to eight Lexington points.
“I told our coaches the one thing we couldn’t afford to do was dig ourselves a hole early in the game,” Senior High coach J.T. Reese said. “That put us in a position where we were trying to catch them.
“We could never cut their lead to single digits. I think if our guys could have looked up at the scoreboard and actually seen that it was a seven- or eight-point difference, they would have realized they were still in the game.”
Trailing 34-25 at the half, the Tygers cut Lexington’s lead to 34-28 early in the third on Jornell Manns’ traditional three-point play. Lexington responded with a 9-0 run and took a 43-28 advantage on an A.J. Nickoli 3-pointer with 4:42 to play in the period. The Tygers never threatened again.
“We told our guys at the half that it was only a three-possession game,” Hamilton said. “They hit a few shots, but we had an answer every time.”
Calm Under Pressure: The Minutemen struggled against Senior High’s press in the first meeting, but took better care of the ball and, more importantly, limited the damage Friday. Lex turned the ball over 16 times, resulting in 17 Senior High points. The Minutemen scored 23 points of 13 Mansfield Senior turnovers.
“We knew that they were going to get after us, especially in the second half,” Hamilton said. “You can practice against pressure all you want, but you can’t simulate their speed. They got their hands in passing lanes and tipped some balls, but that is going to happen against them.”
Balanced Scoring: Yaussy was one of five Minutemen to score in doubles figures. Fellow senior Joey Zahn added 14, while Nickoli, Traevin Harrison ad Cade Stover added 10 points apiece.
“Traevin played really well,” Yaussy said. “He is always pushing us in practice.”
Manns and Mario Young each had 14 points for the Tygers. Young added eight rebounds, five assists and six steals before fouling out late in the fourth quarter. David Hall scored 10 of his 12 points at the free throw line.
Conference Supremacy: Mansfield Senior and Lexington have combined to win 12 OCC championships. Senior High has won eight conference title (five outright), while Lex has won four (two outright). No other team in the league has won the crown more than once.
“I can’t put into words what this means for this senior class,” Hamilton said. “This is a huge step for our program.”
