WOOSTER — Mansfield Senior sleep-walked its way out of the catbird seat in the chase for the Ohio Cardinal Conference championship.
Calvin Blair scored 19 of his game-high 27 points in the first half and Wooster shook up the OCC standings further with a 65-56 win over the Tygers on Friday.
Senior High (10-6, 7-3) slipped a game behind Mount Vernon (13-5, 8-2), which survived a scare at West Holmes on Friday. Wooster (9-5, 6-3) and Lexington (13-5, 6-3), which roughed up Ashland on Friday, are a half-game back of the Tygers.
The Generals closed the first quarter on a 10-1 run to take a 15-5 lead and extended their advantage to 33-18 at the half. Senior High cut Wooster’s lead to 20-15 with 3:59 left in the second quarter, but Blair knocked down three straight 3-pointers during a 11-2 run and capped the half with a steal and layup with 48 seconds remaining.
“They were ready to play and we were not ready to play and that part has to be on me,” said Senior High coach Marquis Sykes, whose Tygers lost their second straight OCC game after coughing up a lead in the final minute of a home loss to Mount Vernon last week. “I have to figure out something to have them ready to play. They weren’t ready to play tonight and it came back to haunt us.”
Blair, who was held in check in the first meeting at Mansfield Senior, scored 12 points in the second quarter as Wooster outscored the Tygers 18-13.
“Calvin hit a couple early ones and that was good to get us started,” said Wooster coach Michael Snowbarger, whose Generals hadn’t played since a 59-56 loss at Mount Vernon on Jan. 19. “We came out with a lot of energy early and I thought we played a great first half.”
Senior High made things interesting in the third quarter, outscoring the Generals 24-12. The Tygers trailed 45-42 going into the fourth and pulled even on a Christian Haney 3-pointer with 7:33 to play. After trading layups, the Generals went on a 7-2 spurt with Blair scoring five points to key it.
“We just didn’t have enough energy to finish the game off,” Sykes said. “I thought it was clear we ran out of gas.”
Quan Hilory led Mansfield Senior with 17 points. B.J. Patrick had 14 points, while Breyon Mills added 11 points and 13 rebounds.
Cedric Corbin had 13 points for the Generals. Dylan Dagley added 10, eight coming in the fourth quarter.
