ASHLAND – While the Ashland boys basketball team is still searching for its first home win of the season, Mansfield Senior is starting to make every gym look like a home away from home.
The Tygers shrugged off a brief second-quarter scare Friday night at Arrow Arena and sprinted away with a 72-49 victory.
The win stretched Senior’s win streak to nine games (five straight on the road). It’s the first time the Tygers (10-2, 7-1 Ohio Cardinal Conference) have stacked up that many victories in a row since the 2018-19 season.
“Everybody’s unlocked, everybody’s healthy,” said Senior coach Marquis Sykes, whose team had scored more than 67 points just one other time this winter. “We’re starting to hit our stride a little bit, starting to understand all the things that we’re trying to do.”
It wasn’t a wire-to-wire dominance for the Tygers, however.
Ashland (4-9, 2-6) used scrappy play from guard Paxon Ediger and 3-pointers in the second quarter from he and Isaac Stewart to grab a 21-20 lead.
But Senior quickly answered with a 9-0 run, spurred by multiple buckets each from Karion Lindsay and Ja’Ontay O’Bryant to surge back in front.
Ashland never led again and the Tygers methodically pulled away behind 41 total points from Lindsay (17 points, 6 assists) and Kyevi Roane (game-high 24 points, 7 rebounds). The duo finished a combined 15 of 27 from the field (5 of 10 from 3-point range).
Roane had a game-high 18 points in the first meeting against Ashland, a 59-44 season-opening Senior victory. But Sykes feels his junior is growing into more of a complete player.
“He’s playing really well right now,” the coach said of Roane. “He’s hitting the offensive boards hard, getting out in transition as well, and also locked in defensively. He had several deflections and a few steals tonight.
“Tonight was the first night he really got it going from the perimeter, so once he adds that consistently to his game, he’s really, really going to be a matchup problem for teams.”
A 10-1 run for Senior early in the third quarter effectively put the game on ice. That came on the heels of 6-foot-5 Ashland post player Nathan Bernhard collecting his third foul.
Arrows coach Jason Hess said that was a backbreaker, as the hosts simply couldn’t match Mansfield’s muscle inside.
“We get small real fast without him,” said Hess of Bernhard, who had a team-high five rebounds but was held without a field goal. “He never really got back into the game after that. He didn’t have his best game but he does give us a little bit of defensive presence and a little bit of rebounding.
“I thought a lot of their run was second- or third-chance points. They’re so relentless on the glass and that was kind of the difference in the game throughout the whole night.”
The Tygers outrebounded the hosts, 40-34, and had six players with at least three boards, led by Duke Reese with eight.
Senior also outscored Ashland 36-20 inside the perimeter, forcing 15 turnovers.
The Arrows got eight points from Reed Emmons – including a 3-pointer off an assist from Tyler Sauder in the second quarter that made it 31-26 – but Ediger proved to be the only serious scoring threat for AHS.
The sophomore, who had a season-high 23 points against Big Walnut, finished the night 8 of 14 from the field for 19 points.
“He’s really starting to figure it out,” Hess said of Ediger, who balanced some aggressive scoring inside with a pair of buckets from the perimeter. “His first few games, due to not having a lot of varsity experience, I felt like he was a little bit tentative.
“I feel like he’s playing a lot more confident, being more aggressive and starting to understand what’s there and what he can get.”
Still, Hess said he was disappointed that his team didn’t show improvement from the its first meeting against the Tygers, who Ashland split with last year when Senior was 11-3 in OCC play.
The Arrows are now 0-6 at home and five of their last six losses overall have come by double digits.
“We’ve got to figure out a way to get a lot tougher if we’re going to beat the top teams in our league,” said Hess, whose squad will try to get back on track at home Saturday night against Ontario (3-8).
The Tygers, meanwhile, have been thriving by speeding teams up and keeping them uncomfortable.
They’ll need to continue doing so to keep pace with OCC-leading Lexington (14-0, 8-0), ranked No. 3 in Division II. Senior will face the Minutemen next week but will be looking for its 10th consecutive win Saturday at Lima Senior (6-4).
“We’re just trying to get a little bit better and a little bit better,” Sykes said. “That approach has been working for us.”
