LEXINGTON — Scott Hamilton is not a fan of early January, the time that statewide basketball polls come out for the first time during the season.
The veteran Lexington basketball coach is even less fond of initial rankings that come out right before a game — especially with team that starts three sophomores and has two more coming off the bench.
“I hate this time of year,” he said with a smile after his Minutemen remained unbeaten with a 73-64 win against Mount Vernon on Tuesday night in an Ohio Cardinal Conference game.
Lexington (13-0, 7-0) was ranked third among Ohio’s Division II teams when the first Associated Press poll was announced Monday, one day before the Yellow Jackets (6-6, 4-3) overcame a huge early hole to push the Minutemen to the end.
“When it comes out on game day, you don’t get a whole lot of time to talk with your kids and kind of drill it into their heads. The kids see that and it excites them and they just get a little bit of that belief.
“I told them 90 percent of the people that got us that No. 3 ranking, they don’t even know who we are. They don’t know me. They don’t know any of my kids. They don’t know any of that stuff.
“So I said, ‘You got to take that for what it’s worth.’ I told them the only thing that should matter to us is what happens out on that court. No ranking is going to get us any points. No ranking is going to get us any wins and no rankings are going to take us anywhere in the (post-season) tournament,” Hamilton said.
(Below are photos from Lexington’s 73-64 win at home Tuesday night against Mount Vernon. The story continues after the gallery.)
Brayden Fogle keys fast start for Lexington
Lexington, which got 26 points and 11 rebounds from sophomore Brayden Fogle, nearly buried the Yellow Jackets early, taking an 11-0 lead at the start.
The 6-foot-5 Fogle had 16 points in the first quarter on eight-of-eight shooting as the Minutemen led 21-13 after one, a margin Lexington expanded to 42-26 at halftime.
But just as Mount Vernon did Jan. 5 in overcoming a a 10-1 deficit to Ashland in a 56-49 win, coach Nick Coon’s squad continued to battle in the final 16 minutes.
In fact, the Yellow Jackets, with three players in double figures, outscored the hosts, 38-31, in the second half and closed the gap to just five late in the fourth quarter.
It’s a familiar script for the Yellow Jackets
It’s a script, however, Coon said his team has seen too often.
“I think me, our players, our staff, and I’m sure our fans, we’re getting to that point where we’ve seen that same movie too much,” Coon said. “We need to move past that to where we play two or three really good quarters and there’s that big swing where we dig a really big hole.
“We just don’t the margin for error to allow that to happen.
“But I am proud of our kids’ response in the second half. It’s a caring bunch that’s invested in each other. So I didn’t expect anything different than that response,” he said.
Andrew Burke led MV with 18 points. Zane Barber had 16 and Jack Marhefka added 15.
Mount Vernon turned the ball over 18 times against the Minutemen, giving up 16 points in transition. Lexington was credited with 13 steals, led by four from sophomore Latrell Hughes off the bench.
“It’s pick your poison with those guys. Our thought was we have go to try to get some easy buckets before their big guys are in front of the rim and set up. We did at times. We got some good clean looks. Other times, we got a little bit too sped up and had a few too many turnovers,” Coon said.
“The bigger part of that was once we get into the half court offense, we can’t turn it over because (Lexington) is deadly in transition. That’s how the game started. Them turning us over and just getting transition bucket after transition bucket.
“They’re just so dynamic in the open floor. That makes it very difficult,” Coon said.
‘We’re lucky to get away with the win’
Hamilton spent a little extra time with his team in the post-game locker-room.
Lexington shot 48 percent from the field, but that includes a 13-of-17 effort from Fogle. Take that away and the rest of the team connected on just 39 percent (21 of 54).
Sophomore Seven Allen had 15 points for the Minutemen. Sophomore Joe Caudill added 12 and senior Elijah Hudson had 10.
“A lot of the shots that we took were there. We just couldn’t get them to fall tonight. They weren’t contested. We just weren’t getting them to fall. But we kept taking them — and that was the message (after the game).
“We have got to make better decisions. We’ve got to make sure that we keep that ball moving and keep it fresh,” Hamilton said.
He also wasn’t pleased with his team’s defense. Mount Vernon shot 46 percent from the field, including 50 percent (9 of 18) from behind the 3-point line. Lexington was just 1 of 13 beyond the arc.
“I think it was also one of our worst defensive nights. We left guys wide open. Give credit to Mount Vernon. They they knocked them down. But we knew what their shooting percentages were when they came in tonight and we just gave them wide-open looks.,” Hamilton said.
Lexington schools were closed on Tuesday due to inclement weather, another factor Hamilton considered in his team’s performance.
“My guys got out of their routine, which we talked a little bit about. The first one with young guys, I told them, ‘You have got to keep a routine. You got to get out of bed. You got to do this.’
“But at the end of the day, we’re lucky to get away with the win. It was another new experience that we had to deal with. I hope that it makes us better to get ready for game 14,” Hamilton said.
The Minutemen remained alone atop the OCC standings, one game ahead of Mansfield Senior (9-2, 6-1).
(Below is a PDF with the complete box score from the game.)