GALION — He doesn’t own blue overalls or wear a red conductor’s cap with the letter ‘M’ stitched on the front, but Mario Davison has played like Super Mario lately.
Mansfield Senior’s three-year starting point guard, Davison scored a career high 20 points as the Tygers advanced with a 56-47 win over Ohio Cardinal Conference nemesis Ashland in Thursday’s Division I district semifinal at Galion High School.
Senior High (17-7) will play Perrysburg (21-3) for a district title and a berth in next week’s regional tournament at 7 p.m. Saturday at Bowling Green State University’s Stroh Center. Perrysburg stopped Findlay 41-38 on Thursday.
“The coaches got together with me and told me … ‘We need you to get to the rim and finish,’ ” said Davison, who eclipsed his previous career high of 19 scored at Massillon Perry last year. “Our coaches told me they are going to need me to step up in scoring a little bit and just help us do what we need to do.
“Tonight, they needed me to score.”
After averaging just 6.2 points a game during the regular season, Davison has come alive in Senior High’s two postseason victories. He scored 15 in last week’s come-from-behind win over crosstown rival Madison in the sectional championship game and is averaging 17.5 points in the tournament.
“The formula for us is make your layups, make your free throws and guard the snot out of them. If we do that, we can win,” Senior High coach J.T. Reese said. “Tonight he made his layups, he made his free throws and he guarded the snot out of them.”
The 6-foot Davison was at his best when the game was on the line. He scored 12 of Senior High’s 19 points in the fourth quarter. The Tygers led 37-35 after the third quarter only to outscore Ashland (12-12) 19-12 in the final period.
“They always give us a good game in the tournament,” Davison said. “We knew we would get going sooner or later.”
The Arrows took a 40-39 lead on Isaac White’s traditional three-point play with 5:48 to play in the fourth quarter and tired it at 42-42 on a Brett Vipperman layup with 4:49 to go before Davison and the Tygers strung together a game-deciding 11-0 run. A pair of Naradain James free throws gave Senior High the lead for good at 44-42 with 4:24 remaining.
After almost two full minutes without either team scoring, the Tygers struck for four points in the span of two seconds. First, Chek Washington collected an errant Davison shot and scored on a putback to give Senior High a 46-42 advantage. DeJorr Gibson was then fouled while trying to track down a loose ball and the senior sank both ends of a one-and-one situation for a 48-42 lead with 2:40 to play. Five straight Davison points gave the Tygers a 53-42 cushion with 1:04 remaining before White stopped the bleeding with a pair of free throws with just 55 seconds to go.
“We didn’t handle the pressure very well,” said Ashland coach Tim Fralick, whose Arrows had won five straight. “I thought we would do a better job with that. I was a little disappointed.
“They forced us to try to spread them out and do some different things. We thought we would be able to get them moving with our motion … and make some plays like we have been able to make over the last few weeks and they did a nice job of preventing us from doing that.”
The Arrows had averaged 64.2 points a game during their five-game winning streak. Ashland pounded Fremont Ross 69-41 in its tournament opener last week.
“We knew it was going to be a battle when we saw them against Fremont the other night,” Davison said.
White lead Ashland with 18 points, but was limited to seven in the second half. The sharp-shooting junior attempted just four second-half shots as the Tygers turned up the heat defensively.
“Isaac White is a great player. It’s not going to take one or two guys or one or two quarters to harness this guy,” Reese said. “I thought as long as we made him take shots off the dribble as opposed to (being) wide open, we would be fine.
“They are so adept at running their offense. You have to get them doing something different.”
Vipperman and Trey Smith each had 11 points for the Arrows.
Washington backed Davison with 10 points, while Jalen Reese added nine. Gibson and James each had six.
The Tygers will try to advance to the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2006. Senior High lost to Anthony Wayne in the district title game last March.
“Last year we weren’t prepared,” Davison said of last year’s 64-51 loss. “Saturday we’re going to go in there prepared. It’s our senior year and we’ve got to do something.”
Follow Curt Conrad on Twitter @curtjconrad.
“Last year we weren’t prepared,” Mario Davison said of last year’s 64-51 loss. “Saturday we’re going to go in there prepared. It’s our senior year and we’ve got to do something.”
