ASHLAND — Quan Hilory’s broken finger is finally healed and his fitness level is improving daily.
That’s bad news for the rest of the Ohio Cardinal Conference.
Hilory scored a career-high 32 points — less than a week after dropping what was then a career-best 30 — as Mansfield Senior steamrolled to a 74-54 win over Ashland at Arrow Arena on Friday.
A senior sharpshooter, Hilory is averaging 22 points a night for the Tygers (5-1, 2-0), who won their fifth straight game. He scored 30 points in last Saturday’s win over Columbus Northland.
“He’s getting back into basketball shape,” Senior High coach Marquis Sykes said. “He missed all of the preseason with a broken finger on his non-shooting (left) hand. He’s getting back into rhythm.
“He had a really good summer and he got better. He’s a better shooter, a better ball-handler and a better finisher at the rim.”
The Tygers never led in the first half and trailed by as many as nine points early in the second quarter before Hilory came to life in the third. His 3-pointer with 6:46 remaining gave Senior High gave a 37-34 lead and the Tygers would never trail again.
“We’re just hungry right now,” Hilory said. “All of us are playing with a lot energy.”
Hilory scored 25 of his 32 points in the second half. The Tygers outscored the Arrows (1-1, 1-1) 44-23 after intermission.
“They are relentless for 32 minutes. They play hard and do a great job of rotating guys in and out,” Ashland coach Jason Hess said. “ Really they started making their run in the second quarter.”
The Arrows opened a 24-15 lead on a Luke Denbow bucket with 5:49 remaining in the second quarter. The Tygers closed the period on a 15-7 run and trailed 31-30 at the break.
“They chipped away and got it down to one at halftime,” Hess said. “The momentum swung and we just weren’t able to get it back. They forced us into a lot of turnovers and scored some easy buckets in transition.”
Ashland committed 19 turnovers resulting in 20 Senior High points. The Tygers also swiped 14 offensive rebounds and scored 16 second-chance points.
“Are presses weren’t all that effective in the first half in terms of forcing them into mistakes, but we thought we were starting to wear on them,” Sykes said. “We thought once we got to the second half and played solid man-top-man pressure, we could get to their ball handlers.”
Angelo Grose backed Hilory with 11 points. Jakobe Reese grabbed a game-high 10 rebounds.
Garrett Denbow led the Arrows with 17 points. Luke Denbow added 13 and Klejhan Randleman added 12 points and eight boards.
Ashland used an eight-man rotation and only the five starters scored. Mansfield Senior, meanwhile, got 23 points off the bench.
“We’re not a real deep team,” Hess said. “We’re trying to rotate them the best we can, but it’s one of those years that we’re going to be playing with eight guys.”
Ashland is at Toledo Start on Saturday. Mansfield Senior will play Shelby in the 419 Basketball Challenge at 6 p.m. Dec. 22 at Ontario.
