MADISON TOWNSHIP — Mariah Mansperger and her Ashland teammates spoiled Madison’s christening ceremony on a snowy Thursday night.
Mansperger scored a game-high 22 points and grabbed a team best 10 rebounds and the Arrows sent the scrappy Rams to their fifth straight loss with a 57-51 Ohio Cardinal Conference win in the first ever game at Madison’s new gym.
Like Madison’s final game at Wayne E. Miller Gymnasium on Saturday against Orrville (a 59-55 loss), Thursday’s showdown wasn’t decided until the final seconds. The Rams (5-7, 2-6), who trailed by as many as 13 points in the third quarter and again in the fourth, had cut Ashland’s lead to 51-49 on a Molea Thompson 3-pointer with 2:16 to play and had the ball with a chance to tie, only to commit one of their 16 turnovers. The Arrows (9-3, 5-3), who did themselves no favors at the free throw line much of the night, sank 6 of 8 freebies in the final 1:40 to put ice it.
“I told (the girls) my goal was to go undefeated in the new gym,” Madison coach Brian Carr said. “My kids are playing so hard, but we’re not playing 32 minutes of hard. We’re playing hard when we have to play hard. That was the difference in tonight’s game. We got behind and decided we had to play hard and made a game of it at the end.”
The Rams led 14-12 after the first quarter, but were outscored 16-5 in the second and trailed 28-19 at the break. Ashland’s lead ballooned to 36-23 late in the third quarter before Madison closed the period on a 10-2 run to make it 38-33 heading to the fourth. As they did against Orrville on Saturday, the Rams gave the Arrows fits with their pressure defense.
“We go in spurts,” Ashland coach Jason Snow said. “I thought we played great spurts and then we would let down for three or four minutes. We’d make a fundamental mistake. We’ve got to do a better job of controlling our turnovers.”
Ashland opened the fourth quarter with an 8-0 run to push its advantage to 46-33 with about five minutes remaining, but again the Rams came charging back. A 3-pointer by Alexis Morris with 5:06 remaining ignited Madison’s 16-5 run capped by Thompson’s trey. A pair of free throws by senior standout Alexis Stoops gave the Arrows a 53-49 lead with 1:40 to play, but Thompson hit a pair of freebies to make it 53-51 with 1:30 to go. Ashland’s Kylie Chandler, Sydni Carpenter and Shelby White combined to go 4-for-6 from the line the rest of the way.
“We would get it down to three or four and then we’d have a critical turnover,” Carr said.
Stoops, who torched Madison for 18 points in the first meeting (a 63-58 Ashland win in late December), was limited to 11 points. Mansperger, a 5-foot-9 senior center, picked up the slack, connecting on 9 of 10 field goal attempts and all four of her free throws.
“The first time we played it was Alexis who had the big night for us and tonight it was Mariah, especially early on,” Snow said. “For the most part, I thought our inside presence was the difference in the game.”
Ashland outrebounded Madison 36-27. Stoops swiped nine boards. White matched Stoops with 11 points.
Fantasia Hood led Madison with 18 points, including four 3-pointers. Thompson added 12 and had two treys, while Mekaila Grose had 10 points and a game-high 14 rebounds. Morris added eight points and a pair of 3-pointers.
Madison will look to break its losing skid at Mansfield Senior on Saturday. The Tygers won the first meeting 73-64.
“My kids are playing hard,” Carr said. “It’s going to turn sooner or later.”
Ashland hosts Clear Fork on Saturday. The Arrows beat the Colts 52-46 at Clear Fork in early December.
In junior varsity action, Ashland’s Olivia Vinsack scored eight points and the Arrows held on for a 35-31 win. Cheyene Wood led the Rams with nine points, while Tieria Bowens had eight.
Follow Curt Conrad on Twitter @curtjconrad.
