LEXINGTON — On a night Lexington honored its four seniors, its underclassmen also rose to the occasion in a 75-54 win against Clear Fork in the final regular-season game for both teams.
The younger Minutemen scored 44 of Lexington’s points, led by all-district performer Cade Stover. The 6-foot-4 sophomore had a game-high 22 points on 10-of-15 shooting and also collected four rebounds.
The Minutemen snapped a four-game losing streak to improve to 15-7 overall, 9-5 in the Ohio Cardinal Conference. Clear Fork slipped to 5-16, 2-12 in its final season in the OCC.
“Our seniors did a nice job tonight, but we know we also have to rely on our younger guys in order to make a tournament run,” Lexington coach Scott Hamilton said. “We can’t do it with just the seniors.”
Senior point guard Traevin Harrison added 13 points on six of seven shooting. Sophomore Ben Vore had eight points, while seniors A.J. Nickoli (seven points, five assists), Dana Shoulders (six points, three rebounds) and Harrison Benedict (five points, three rebounds) all assisted in winning their final home game.
ACCURACY AGAIN: Lexington shot 71 percent earlier this season at Clear Fork, winning 73-36. The Minutemen weren’t quite as accurate this time, but still connected on 57 percent (34 of 60).
“Coming off the four losses, we spent some time looking at what our best percentage shots have been this season,” Hamilton said. “Our gameplan was to really attack the rim.
“If you leave us open (behind the 3-point line), we are capable of making those shots. But it’s not who we are.”
Clear Fork coach Steven Bechtel was wary of traveling to Lexington on Senior Night.
“We knew they would come out with a lot of emotion,” he said. “They executed very well. That is a very good basketball team.”
Trailing 35-22 at the half, the Colts surged in the third quarter, connecting on four triples to cut the Lexington margin to 43-37 with 3:44 left in the period.
“We got some stops defensively, which is something we talked about at halftime,” Bechtel said. “It helped us get on a little bit of a run.”
Junior Chance Barnett scored five of his team-high 20 points during the run. Brennan South also finished in double figures for the Colts, scoring 11 points.
“Chance is a competitor,” Bechtel said. “He always draws the other team’s best defender, but he is determined to have a big night and is aggressive going to the rim.”
But the Minutemen ended the quarter on 11-4 run to expand the lead to 54-41 heading into the fourth and the Colts didn’t get within single digits again.
“We had an agenda coming into the third quarter,” Hamilton said with a smile. “But so did Clear Fork and their’s won. I am not happy we gave up 19 points in the third quarter, but we matched them.”
STATISTICALLY SPEAKING: Clear Fork shot 40 percent from the field, including 7 of 22 on 3-point tries. The Minutemen took just nine triples, hitting three.
Lex had a 38-26 rebounding edge, led by Vore with six. Barnett had six for the Colts. Lexington committed eight turnovers compared to 11 for Clear Fork.
The deeper Minutemen got 22 points off the bench, compared to eight for the Colts.
TOURNAMENT TIME: Lexington is the No. 2 seed in the Division II district tournament. The Minutemen will play Friday at 8 p.m. for a sectional title at Galion against the winner of Tuesday’s game between Norwalk and Shelby.
Clear Fork is the No. 6 seed in the Norwalk Division III district tournament. The Colts take on No. 9 seed Galion Wednesday at 7 p.m. at Shelby
