MANSFIELD – Lexington’s seniors have not experienced much success on the basketball court, but that doesn’t mean they want to see their careers come to an end.
Quite the contrary, in fact.
Three seniors played key roles on Tuesday night as Lady Lex avenged a regular season loss to Ontario, knocking the Warriors from the Division II sectional tournament at Mansfield Senior, 66-56.
Senior Emily Stevens had 12 points, eight rebounds and three assists, running the Lexington (4-19) offense most of the night. Fellow senior Kelly Rhodes had 11 points, 18 rebounds and three assists. Senior Alex Fitzpatrick had six points and eight more rebounds.
Lady Lex led most of the game, but didn’t really achieve much separation until the fourth quarter. Lexington went on an 11-2 run in the first 1:26 of the final period, building a 42-39 edge into a 53-41 bulge. Rhodes and Stevens combined to score seven of those 11 points.
“We got excellent leadership tonight from Emily and Kelly,” Lexington coach Mike Kathrein said. “Our seniors stepped up big tonight. This was good for our underclassmen, too. They haven’t experienced success like this either. It’s good for all of them.”
A couple of the Lady Lex youngsters finished in double figures. Junior Michaela Biddle scored 17 points before fouling out late in the fourth quarter. Freshman Catherine Schaefer added 10 points and four rebounds.
The loss was most painful for Ontario senior guard Jayde Niss, who scored 32 points and pulled down five rebounds. She had 16 of the Lady Warriors’ 18 points in the first half. Fellow senior Mackenna Papst added 15.
Lexington shot 41 percent from the field (24 of 58) and added 16 of 26 (62 percent) from the foul line. Ontario hit just 31 percent from the field (16 of 52) and just 51 percent from the foul line (19 of 37). Lexington dominated the boards, 55-27, but committed 28 turnovers compared to 20 for Ontario.
Lexington advances to meet top-seeded Madison on Saturday in the sectional finals at 6:15 p.m. at Mansfield Senior.
The winner of that game advances to the district semifinals on Feb. 27 at 8 p.m. at Buckeye Central High School in New Washington. The Rams (11-11) easily defeated Lady Lex twice during the regular season by scores of 70-64 and 64-38.
“We had two bad quarters in our games against Madison,” Kathrein said. “If we can eliminate that one bad quarter, we have a chance to beat them. We have to take better care of the basketball.”
