LUCAS — Danville and Lucas might not play in the same conference anymore, but the rivalry between the schools is still as feisty as ever.
The Cubs opened the third quarter with a 15-5 run and cruised to a 64-49 win over their former Mid-Buckeye Conference nemesis at the Cub Cave on Tuesday.
Danville was a longtime member of the MBC but left prior to the 2017-18 school year to join the newly-formed Knox Morrow Athletic Conference.
“It’s still a good rivalry. We knew it was going to be a tough, physical game coming in here,” Danville coach Matt Moore said. “Lucas has a good team and we knew we would have our hands full.”
The Blue Devils (8-5) went toe-to-toe with the Cubs (9-2) for the first half and trailed 29-28 at the break. Lucas outscored Danville 21-11 in the third quarter to take a comfortable 50-39 advantage to the fourth.
“Coaches always tell their teams how important those first couple of minutes of the second half are, but it’s nice to see them actually go out and do it,” Lucas coach Taylor Iceman said. “It’s important for the guys to see it’s not just coaching talking.”
The Cubs limited the Devils to 21 points in the second half. Danville’s Skyler Durbin, the KMAC’s leading scorer at 25.3 points a game, managed just five points in the second half and 15 for the game. Lucas seniors Jackson Hauger and Brian Sauder, who are both listed at 5-foot-9, took turns guarding the 6-foot-4 Durbin.
“Danville is an old conference rival and Jackson and Skyler grew up playing against each other,” Iceman said. “Jackson knew who he would be guarding as soon as he saw the game on the schedule.
“Jackson was working so hard, so we switched Brian onto Skyler. Brian did a great job so we stuck with him.”
Trey Fritz scored a game-high 22 points for the Devils. The senior sharpshooter connected on six 3-pointers and scored 21 of Danville’s 27 points in the second and third quarters.
“Trey shot the ball very well. That’s one of the best games he’s had for a while,” Moore said. “He kept us close in the first half.”
Lucas had four players reach double figures, led by Logan Niswander with 16 points and four triples. Sauder had 15, while Hauger added 12 and freshman Ethan Sauder dropped 11.
“We didn’t play very well defensively tonight. We just didn’t get stops when we needed them,” Moore said. “We’re better than that defensively. We’re done making excuses. We’ve got to be better defensively.”
