LEXINGTON — Galion senior guard Elijah Chafin threw down a long-distance challenge in the first half Friday night.
Lexington sophomore Brayden Fogle had an inside answer in the second half.
The 6-foot-5 forward scored 13 points in the third quarter to break open an eight-point game at the intermission as the Minutemen knocked off the Tigers, 81-63, in a Division II sectional championship game.
Fogle, who finished with 21 points after sitting out almost the entire fourth quarter, said he knew someone needed to answer after Chafin rained down 19 points in the second quarter, hitting five of six three-point attempts.
The long-range attack cut an 18-5 Lexington lead after the first quarter to just 35-27 at halftime.
Did Chafin’s performance fire up Fogle in the third quarter? The Ohio Cardinal Conference Player of the Year powered his way inside the Galion defense on 6-of-6 shooting in eight minutes.
“Absolutely, especially in a tournament game. You can’t let that happen and somebody’s got to step up when the other team is making a run. I did a good job of that. Other nights, it’ll be other people,” Fogle said.
“When I am getting inside like that, there ain’t no stopping me, especially if they don’t have anyone big enough to do that. They clearly didn’t,” he said.
“It can be scary playing a team like them. They can light it up at any time, I’ll tell you that. But we did a good job of keeping our cool, staying collected and finishing the game up,” Fogle said.
The left-hander helped Lexington outscore Galion, 31-15, in the third quarter to take a 66-42 lead into the final eight minutes.
Galion coach Tyler Sanders, whose team lost to Lexington 50-40 during the regular season, knew Fogle was capable.
“He scores a lot of his points on that left block. We tried to do a good job of keeping (him) off that level and we didn’t do it. He’s obviously a D-1 basketball player and it showed tonight. Just his physicalness is pretty remarkable to watch.
“He’s obviously incredibly talented and the scary part is he is only a sophomore. So thank God for seven divisions next year,” Sanders said.
District tournament field set for Ontario High School
The win advances second-seeded Lexington (21-2) to the district semifinals Thursday against third-seeded Willard (19-4) at Ontario in a rematch of last year’s sectional title game. Galion saw its season end at 12-12.
The Minutemen and Flashes, who knocked off Sandusky Perkins, 52-44, on Friday night, will play the second game at the O-Rena, tipping around 7:30 p.m.
The first game Thursday at 6 p.m. will pit top-seeded Shelby (21-2) against fifth-seeded Mansfield Senior (18-6) after the Tygers upset No.-4 seed Bellevue, 57-48, on the road Friday evening. Shelby eliminated Vermilion, 76-40, in a sectional title game Friday.
It’s familiar territory for Lexington, Mansfield Senior and Shelby, all three of which reached the district semifinals last year.
Veteran Lexington coach Scott Hamilton, who recorded his 200th career win on Feb. 17, said he’s not surprised by the tournament results.
Shelby was ranked No. 2 in the state in the final AP poll of the season. Lexington was No. 3 and Willard was ranked No. 7.
Mansfield Senior, which has won six of its last seven games, was not ranked in the statewide poll.
But the Tygers played a rugged schedule that included losses to Division I foes Sandusky (21-1) and Lima Senior (13-9) and Division II Trotwood-Madison (18-5), and a win against No.-5 ranked Division II Columbus Bishop Hartley.
“We knew it was gonna be a meat grinder. We didn’t know what Galion was going to do tonight, but we knew that if we got past them, we were going to see high-caliber teams. Shelby bringing back so many seniors, Willard being senior loaded. Both of those (teams) having the two best individual players in the area,” he said.
“And it never fails. Mansfield, no matter what they do during regular season, they hit their stride come tournament time and nobody wants to play them at tournament time,” Hamilton said.
Hamilton: ‘We needed to guard somebody’
The Lexington coach said his message was clear to his team at halftime after Galion hit six triples in the second quarter to outscore the Minutemen, 22-17, in the period.
“We needed to guard somebody. (Chafin) is 5-for-7 from the 3-point line. I don’t know that he was contested on any of them. That was really the message at halftime. He was the No. 2 guy on the scouting report, right behind (Cooper) Kent.
“So it didn’t surprise us. He’s definitely capable, but we just didn’t defend him. I just challenged the guys and somebody’s got to step up. It was something that we worked on in practice. Some of the switching, their motion is good. They get after it a little bit, but we were too lazy to get out on him.
“He had some uncontested shots and he knocked him down. Give him credit. He’s a good player,” Hamilton said.
Chafin only had four points in the second half and Kent, scoreless in the first half, finished with three.
Sanders, whose team used a four-corners offense to slow Lexington during the regular season, tried a different approach Friday night. It didn’t work at the beginning as the Minutemen raced to an 18-2 lead.
“We knew that we weren’t probably going to be able to go four corners. They were going to have some kind of adjustment. The first time out we spread out and tried to hold onto it for 32 minutes and we still came up short,” Sanders said.
“Tonight, I felt like we had to allow our shooters to shoot. But we still needed to waste 30 to 40 seconds each possession. And we didn’t do that, especially early. When you get down 18-2 against Lexington, good luck. Nobody’s coming back from that.
“I give my kids credit. It’s eight-point game (at the half), and we had a three to make it a five-point game. It was getting loud in there and I think it says a lot about our kids’ character and just how hard they fought back.
“But the pace of the game was just a lot different this time around. And to Lexington’s credit, they did a good job of getting it up and down,” Sanders said.
Statistically speaking
Fogle’s 21 points led Lexington. He was backed by 15 points from sophomore guard Seven Allen, 13 from senior post Elijah Hudson and 11 from junior guard Gavin Husty.
Chafin was the only Galion player in double figures.
Lexington shot 67 percent from the field, including 29-of-37 two-point shots. Galion hit 19-of-51 shots (37 percent), including 12-of-34 triples.
The Minutemen had a 27-24 edge in rebounding, led by Fogle with five and sophomore forward Joe Caudill with four. Kent and Steven Glew each had six for Galion.
Lexington had 21 assists, led by six each from Allen and Husty. The Minutemen committed 10 turnovers. Galion had 11 assists, including two each from five different players. The Tigers suffered 13 turnovers.
(Below is a PDF of the box score from the Lexington-Galion game on Friday night.)
