WILLARD — Scott Hamilton couldn’t mask his disappointment, but Lexington’s veteran coach could see the silver lining in Friday’s 54-37 loss to Sandusky in the Division III district championship game inside Robert L. Haas Gymnasium.
Lex reached the Round of 32 with a roster comprised almost entirely of underclassmen. That group, which included just three seniors, won 20 games and a third straight Ohio Cardinal Conference championship.
“There’s never a good conversation you can have with the kids (after a season-ending loss),” Hamilton said. “You want to say something that makes them feel better, but nothing will.
“I was really proud of the guys. We had a solid season, but tonight it hurts.”
Lexington boasts a wildly talented junior class that includes Brayden Fogle and Joe Caudill, among others. Both Fogle and Caudill are major college football recruits. It’s not unusual for blue-chip prospects to graduate early so they can get a head start on their college football careers.
“We’ve got some guys who have the opportunity to play college football. A couple of weeks ago I had a question posed to me, ‘Is someone coming back?’ ” Hamilton said. “The indication is no one is going to be gone next year.”
As for Friday’s game, the Minutemen (20-4) were ice skating uphill from the jump. Sandusky raced out to a 13-4 advantage midway through the first period and led 15-12 after the first quarter. The Blue Streaks (17-7) extended the advantage to 32-19 at the half.
Lexington cut the deficit to 36-29 on a Seven Allen layup with 2:02 to play in the third, but that is as close as the Minutemen would get.
Sandusky’s Amir Aaron connected on a 3-pointer from well beyond the arc to make it 39-29 with 1:30 to play in the period then Jason Henlon knocked down a trey as the third-quarter clock expired to make it 42-31.
“Your’ve got a team that shoots 22 percent from the 3-point line and they shoot 44 percent tonight (6-for-14),” Hamilton said. “They hit some big shots when they needed to.”
Nursing a double-digit lead, Sandusky spread the floor and made Lexington extend its defense throughout the fourth quarter. Eight of the Blue Steaks’ 12 fourth-quarter points came on free throws and the other four were courtesy of uncontested layups.
“When we get a lead like that and they have to gamble a little bit, we kind of had them right where we wanted them,” Sandusky coach DeMar Moore said.
“We knew coming in that they wouldn’t pressure us like some teams do. If we got a decent-sized lead we could be patient on offense and make them come out and guard us.
“They’ve got a lot of size and we wanted to get that size outside of the paint and attack the basket.”
Jason Henlon led Sandusky with a game-high 20 points. Kobe Brown added 14.
Fogle led the Minutemen with 15 points. Allen added 12, while Caudill had eight points and nine rebounds.
Lexington finished as district runner-up for a fourth straight year.
“I had two or three of my guys come up to me and say, ‘Silver is starting to suck,’ ” Hamilton said. “But this is what you want to play for. You want to play in these district final games.”