ONTARIO — Ontario coach Tracy Baxter admitted she didn’t see it coming. Neither did Lexington coach Gabby Stover.
Baxter’s Warriors connected on nine of 16 three-point tries Thursday night in a 44-40 non-league, girls’ basketball win at home against Lexington.
Ontario has not been a long-range threat this season, coming into the O-Rena with a 3-6 record and riding a four-game losing streak.
That changed against Lady Lex, led by 5-4 junior guard Eden Howard, who connected on six of nine triples all by herself and finished with 18 points.
Baxter laughed when asked afterward if her team had often experienced that kind of long-range success.
“Nope. Not on the season. We are not,” said Baxter, in her first full season as Ontario’s coach.
Baxter, who took over the program midway through last season, said Howard has been putting in the work.
“She did great tonight. (In practice) she just shoots and shoots and shoots. She’s been working on it and it’s paid off,” Baxter said.
Seniors Ella Shaffer, Ka’Mashya Shaw and Taylor Counts each added a triple for Ontario, which shot 56 percent behind the arc, but hit just 17 percent (7 of 42) of its two-point efforts.
The biggest of those two-point baskets came with 18 seconds left when Shaw broke a 40-40 tie with a driving layup.
After Lexington turned the ball over, Counts hit two free throws with 5.5 seconds left to seal the win.
The outside attack was a part of the gameplan Baxter said.
“(Lexington) has some tall kids. So we wanted to spread it out and see if we could get the inside-outside and we got it today. I am so proud of them,” she said.
Counts supported Howard with 11 points and seven rebounds, while Shaw chipped in seven points and nine rebounds.
“Taylor is one of our senior leaders and we expect a lot from her. She came out and played tonight and that’s what we need from her every game,” Baxter said.
The 3-point barrage came as a surprise to Lexington first-year coach Gabby Stover, an LHS alum who led her team to an Ohio Cardinal Conference title as a player in the 2019-2020 season.
“Every team has zoned (Ontario) from what I have seen, most of them (because the Warriors haven’t been a good long-distance shooing team),” said Stover, whose 4-6 team saw its own three-game winning streak snapped.
“Obviously the Howard girl had a good shooting night. We had a horrible shooting night. We normally shoot the ball very well, so it happens,” Stover said.
The Lady Lex coach said she sensed issues with her young team from the start.
“Tonight we came off right at the tip and we looked like we were just kind (going through) the motion of things. You can’t do that. You can’t start a game like that. Especially something like this. This is a rivalry game and there’s a lot of energy in it.
“There wasn’t any time to mess around there and we spent a lot of time being lackadaisical, I think,” Stover said.
“(We) are way too good of a team to look like that. If we play our game, it would be a totally different ball game,” she sid.
” We’ve kind of been on a streak there and it happens. Honestly, I’m kind of glad it happened. Maybe they needed to see that. So we got a lot of adjustments to make and a lot of things to just keep working on,” Stover said.
To Baxter, it was a high in a season that thus far has seen highs and lows.
“We’re a roller coaster . We really are. We played well tonight. If we come out and have this intensity and play like this, they can compete with anyone.
“But they’ve got to learn how to compete and today was a good day,” Baxter said.
For Lexington, 6-2 sophomore forward Ava Brown led the way with 12 points and 15 rebounds. Fellow sophomore Tatum Stover added eight points and 11 rebounds.
Both teams play again Saturday. Ontario takes on Crestview in the Wayne Roller Holiday Classic at Mansfield Christian High School. Lexington is at OCC foe Ashland on Saturday.
(Below is the complete box score from Ontario’s 44-40 win at home Thursday night against Lexington.)
