MADISON TOWNSHIP — Jayden Jeffries was a handful.
Madison’s junior forward scored 26 points and came up with the game-clinching steal in the closing seconds as the Rams held off Mount Vernon 57-55 in an Ohio Cardinal Conference thriller Friday at Madison Middle School.
The Yellow Jackets trailed 57-52 before Trevor Buttke hit his third and final 3-pointer of the evening to make it 57-55 with 5.4 seconds remaining. Mount Vernon fouled immediately and Madison’s Isaac Brooks, who hit both ends of a one-and-one with 17.3 seconds to play, misfired on the front end of a one-and-one with 4.6 seconds to go.
The Jackets called timeout to draw up a play, but Jeffries tipped the ball out of bounds with 3.8 seconds remaining. Mount Vernon again tried to inbound the ball and this time Jeffries came up with a steal and dribbled out the clock.
“I just didn’t want them to get the ball inbounds and have a chance to hit a shot,” Jeffries said. “I was able to get to it and kill the clock before they could foul.”
Jeffries’ last-second heroics capped another OCC nail-biter.
Mount Vernon (9-10, 5-5) trailed 24-19 at the half and 40-33 late in the third before closing to within 40-37 going to the fourth. The Rams (11-6, 4-5) never relinquished the lead in the final period, but never led by more than six points.
“We could never quite get over the hump,” Mount Vernon coach Nick Coon said. “We had a tremendous second half offensively and battled back, but ultimately, we couldn’t get that big stop when we needed it.
“That has been a recurring theme at several points during our season. We haven’t gotten that big stop or big rebound when we need it.”
The Jackets played without 6-foot-5 senior forward Beau Bridges and the 6-foot-4 Jeffries took advantage. He scored 15 of his 26 points in the second half, including 10 in the fourth quarter.
“With them not having Bridges, Jayden had a size advantage,” Madison coach Chris Armstrong said. “Jayden is savvy enough to get into the paint and he’s so good at taking his time with his spin moves.
“With his size and skill level, he’s able to take advantage of some things.”
Levi Zehner backed Jeffries with 14 points, including a pair of 3-pointers. Ethan Spillman connected on a trio of treys for nine points.
“We had guys making shots. When Ethan Spillman is shooting well and Levi hits a couple of 3s and Isaac can knife into the lane, it kind of spreads out in there,” Armstrong said. “It’s like they did to us.
“I told our guys playing against Mount Vernon is like a root canal. They spread you out with so many shooters. They’ve got five shooters on the floor.”
Nolan Belcher led the Yellow Jackets with 18 points. Buttke had 13, while Ben Bridges added 10 and Caden Rowland had nine.
“I was really proud of our kids’ effort. We competed hard and competed for each other,” Coon said. “We made a lot of plays but Madison probably made a few more than we did throughout the course of the game. Unfortunately we came up a little bit short.”
