LEXINGTON — Scott Hamilton may attend Ashland High School’s graduation this spring. You can’t blame the Lexington basketball coach if he wants to make sure the final Denbow graduates.
Luke Denbow, already the Arrows’ all-time leading scorer, poured in 37 points and pulled down seven rebounds Friday night in a 66-48 win over the Minutemen, pulling a tight Ohio Cardinal Conference race into an even tighter ball.
He’s the third Denbow to torment Hamilton, in his 10th year as head coach at Lexington. Older brothers Garrett (Class of 2019) and Grant (2017) combined to score 1,643 points in their Ashland careers.
The three brothers have 10 varsity basketball letters among them for the Arrows.
The youngest of the brothers connected on 14-of-23 shots Friday night, including 5-of-10 triples.
The 37-point effort is the 6-foot-1 senior point guard’s career high and is just five points shy of the Ashland single-game record of 42, set by Tom Malone in 1970.
Denbow made it rain on a January winter night in Ohio, despite a defensive gameplan designed to contain him.
“We put a lot of attention on Denbow because we knew what he could do,” Hamilton said. “And he proved it.
“His first step is so quick. When his confidence is going, he is a tough defend. There is a reason he was the player of the year in the conference last year,” Hamilton said.
“I thought Ashland was probably the league favorite going into the season.”
Oh yeah, the conference. A madhouse of a race.
Ashland (9-4) and Lexington (10-3) are now tied atop the league standings with 5-2 conference marks. Mount Vernon (7-7) topped West Holmes on Friday night and is just a half-game back at 4-2 in the OCC.
Defending league champion Wooster beat Mansfield Senior on Friday night, the Generals’ fourth win in their last five games. Wooster (5-7 overall) is 3-4 in the OCC, leading the Tygers (4-7, 2-4), Madison (8-5, 2-4) and West Holmes (3-6, 1-4).
“No score surprises me in this league,” said Ashland coach Jason Hess, whose Arrows avenged a 73-71 home loss to Lexington on Dec. 3.
Both the coach and his shooting star credited the Arrows’ defense for keying the offense. The plan Friday was to pack the inside and force Lexington, with a decided height advantage, to settle for jump shots.
It worked as Lexington shot just 36 percent from the floor (19-of-53), including just 3-of-14 behind the arc.
The Arrows owned a 30-24 edge in points from the paint and also took advantage of 18 turnovers by the Minutemen, who led 14-6 in the first quarter.
“When you play hard on defense, the ball tends to bounce your way,” Hess said. “We had good help-side defense with guys dropping into the paint. We did a better job of keeping the ball in front of us.”
Denbow said a 78-51 loss to Mansfield Senior earlier this month triggered a new mindset for he and his teammates. The defense on Friday sparked the offense.
“We wanted to limit Lexington to one shot, get the rebound and then get out on transition. I thrive on transition,” he said.
STATISTICALLY SPEAKING: Ashland shot 49 percent from the floor (26-of-53) and added 7-of-10 from the line. As a team, the Arrows connected on 7-of-22 from beyond the arc.
Senior Grayson Steury added 15 points for Ashland.
Junior center Baden Forup led Lexington with 13 points on 5-of-11 shooting. He also led the Minutemen with nine rebounds. Senior Caden Eichler added 12 points.
Lexington owned a 37-28 rebounding edge, though the Arrows committed eight fewer turnovers.
UP NEXT: Ashland hosts Ontario on Saturday night in a non-league game. The Warriors (4-8) lost at home to Shelby on Friday night.
Lexington travels to Colonel Crawford on Saturday night in another non-league game. The Eagles (11-0) defeated Buckeye Central on Friday.
