BOWLING GREEN, Ohio — Lexington’s Joey Zahn and Jonah Yaussy sat in the interview room deep in the bowels of the Stroh Center, heads hung low.
The Minutemen had fallen to Ottawa-Glandorf 52-46 moments earlier in the Division II regional semifinals, but more disheartening than the loss was the finality that came with it.
The realization that Zahn and Yaussy had suited up with the four other members of Lexington’s six-man senior class for the final time already was setting in.
“Even before the season started, Jonah and I and some other kids were putting work in when nobody else was. At 5:30 in the morning Joey Vore and I were in the weight room trying to get better,” Zahn said. “Those are the things I’ll remember. Not only winning a lot of games with all these guys, but the struggle that it took to get to that point.”
Flanked by his senior standouts, Lex coach Scott Hamilton couldn’t have agreed more.
“The toughest part for me is not necessarily the loss. I’ve had those before,” Hamilton said. “It’s knowing that I’m going to miss six great guys being on the court that I’ve had for my head coaching career. … They’ve been in my program the entire time.
“That’s the toughest pill I’m having to swallow right now is I’m not going to have those six guys with me anymore.”
Momentum Swings: Ottawa-Glandorf (21-5) jumped out to an 8-2 lead in the opening two minutes before Lexington (24-3) got untracked. The Minutemen closed the quarter on a 13-3 run to take a 15-11 advantage into the second quarter. The lead grew to 24-13 midway through the second when A.J. Nickoli buried a 3-pointer with 4:03 to play in the opening half.
“Anybody that’s watched them play or us play, (knows that) 10 points is not a great deal when you’ve got guys who can his some 3s,” Hamilton said. “Ten points is only a couple of possessions. We knew that.
“Trust me, we weren’t celebrating when we were up 10.”
The Titans outscored Lex 14-3 during the final three minutes of the first half and pulled even at 27-27 on Cordell Stover’s offensive rebound and putback as the horn sounded.
“That was a huge spurt,” O-G coach Tyson McGlaughlin said. “We started off good and got a nice lead there. We were attacking the rim, then we got a little stagnant. They were hurting us on the offensive glass, they were getting post touches. They were doing everything that they needed to do.
“We got a couple steals. They shot a couple of quick shots and we were able to turn those quick shots into transition baskets. Then Cordell with a huge play at the end of the first (half). … That was a huge bucket going into halftime.”
Foul Trouble: Ottawa-Glandorf’s second-quarter surge came while Yaussy was on the bench. The 6-foot-5 forward picked up his second foul with 5:32 to play in the first half. Yaussy had 12 points before taking a seat, forcing Lex to abandon its man defense and go to a zone.
“Any time you have to take one of your key guys out, there are adjustments that have to be made,” Hamilton said. “That was something we were trying to manage in the first half the best we could.
“We tried to go zone to deal with the foul situation a little bit. A couple times we lost them in rotation and they hit some shots. They run good stuff.”
Board Battle: Lexington’s postseason success was due in no small part to its dominance on the glass. Against Ottawa-Glandorf, the Minutemen were outrebounded 39-30.
“They are a very physical team. We knew that coming in,” said Yaussy, who was limited to three rebounds. “We knew if we wanted to win this game we would have to outrebound them and we didn’t do that.”
Jay Kaufman grabbed nine of his 11 rebounds in the second half, when the Titans outboarded the Minutemen 23-14.
“In the first half it was 16-16 (rebounding) and they had seven offensive rebounds,” McGlaughlin said. “Our team is not going to win because of star power. We have to be able to do the little things. We’ve got tough kids who accept challenges.”
Leaders: Yaussy topped Lexington with 18 points. Freshman Cade Stover added 13 points and 11 rebounds, while Zahn had nine points.
Jordan Verhoff topped O-G with 14 points. Nick Weihrauch had 12 points and seven boards and Zac Unterbrink had nine points.
Up Next: Ottawa-Glandorf will play Bay Village Bay for the regional title Saturday. Bay beat Napoleon 76-66 in Thursday’s nightcap.
