MANSFIELD — When an opportunity presented itself, D.J. Corbin seized it.
Fifth-seeded Mansfield Senior will play in the Division II district tournament this week at Ontario thanks in no small part to the contributions of Corbin.
The 6-foot sophomore scored 13 points on 4-of-6 shooting in last week’s 57-48 sectional final win at No. 4 Bellevue.
In two postseason victories, Corbin is averaging 11.5 points per game.
“He’s only a sophomore, but that kid can play,” teammate Kyevie Roane said of Corbin. “He makes game-winning play after game-winning play.”
Corbin was inserted into the starting lineup after Karion Lindsay left the team for undisclosed reasons. His impact has been hard to ignore.
“He’s a sophomore, so he’s kind of learning on the fly,” Mansfield Senior coach Marquis Sykes said as the Tygers cut down the nets at Bellevue. “He hasn’t been in these moments in the tournament yet, but you wouldn’t know it by watching him play. He did a lot of things well for us tonight.
“He gets a lot of stops on the defensive end and he finishes in traffic. We need him to be aggressive and not be passive.”
For the season, Corbin is averaging 6.5 points a game on 55-percent shooting. He is one of only four Tygers to have appeared in all 24 games on the season.
“You’ve got to come in and be aggressive and not play scared,” Corbin said. “Sometimes I’m nervous but I know I’ve got to step up for my team.”
Senior High (18-6) will need Corbin to be at his best Thursday when the Tygers take on top-seeded Shelby in the early game of a district semifinal doubleheader at Ontario. The Whippets punched their ticket to the district with a 76-40 win over Vermilion.
The teams met in late January at Pete Henry Gym with the Whippets cruising to a 73-55 win. Corbin came off the bench to score five points in the loss, while Roane had 11.
“We didn’t play our best game the first time against them,” said Roane, who is averaging a team-leading 17.9 points and 6.8 rebounds a game. “It’s win or go home.
“We’ve got to leave it all out there.”
Senior Ja’Ontay O’Bryant agreed. O’Bryant has taken over as Senior High’s primary ball-handler in Lindsay’s absence and distributed seven assists in a sectional semifinal win over Ontario.
“I feel like, since we played Ontario, we really found out who we are,” O’Bryant said. “The whole season we were going through the motions.
“If we play how we did (against Bellevue and Ontario) I feel like we have a pretty good shot against Shelby.”