MANSFIELD — The chase for the Ohio Cardinal Conference championship is what everyone expected it would be before the start of the season — a knock-down, drag-out donnybrook that won’t be decided until the season’s final day.
The OCC’s top four teams are separated by a single game in the loss column. Mount Vernon has clinched no worse than a share of the title after Tuesday’s 56-48 win at Ashland. The Yellow Jackets are 9-2 with one conference game remaining.
“Right now we have things going pretty well, but there’s no time to rest,” Mount Vernon coach Nick Coon said last week. “We know how tough every game is because we are by no means a juggernaut team.”
Lexington, Wooster and Mansfield Senior are all 7-3 with two OCC games to play.
Wooster, fresh off Tuesday’s 72-53 win at Madison, returns to Richland County on Friday to challenge the Minutemen. The Generals conclude OCC action at home against West Holmes on Feb. 13.
“I thought before the season the conference champion could have three or four losses,” said Wooster coach Michael Snowbarger, who led the Generals to the OCC title last year. “You’ve got to protect your home court and then steal a couple of games on the road and that is the recipe we have followed this year.”
Lex, which kept pace with a 60-50 win at West Holmes on Tuesday, hosts Mount Vernon on Feb. 16. The Minutemen would like nothing more than to avenge last week’s 67-57 loss at The Hive.
“Mount Vernon’s got two losses and the rest of us have three,” Lex coach Scott Hamilton said. “It’s a four-horse race.”
Mansfield Senior, which has dropped its last two OCC games, will host Ashland on Friday before visiting crosstown rival Madison on Feb. 16. While the schedule favors Senior High, the Tygers have struggled since losing Jornell Manns to a knee injury in mid-January. The University of Minnesota football signee had an MRI earlier this week.
“Who knows what’s going to happen in the conference? I’m pretty sure all the coaches knew it was going to be like this,” Senior High coach Marquis Sykes said. “We thought coming into the season there could be four or five teams sitting up there tied or a game apart and that is exactly what we have.
“Everybody is beatable. On any night any of us can win or lose and that is what makes this conference so competitive and so much fun.”
