LEXINGTON, Ohio — A.J. Nickoli and his Lexington teammates caught fire in the fourth quarter Friday.
Nickoli scored 10 of his game-high 15 points in the fourth and the Minutemen remained unbeaten with a 46-45 win over Ashland.
Lex (5-0, 2-0 Ohio Cardinal Conference) outscored the Arrows (2-1, 1-1) 17-9 in the final eight minutes to overcome a 36-29 third-quarter deficit. Nickoli connected on all three of his field goal attempts, including a pair of 3-pointers. His triple with 3:30 remaining gave the Minutemen the lead for good at 42-40.
“I had a lot of open looks and I was knocking them down,” Nickoli said. “I was happy with that.”
Lex wouldn’t make another field goal the rest of the way, but connected on 4 of 7 free throws. Nickoli hit both ends of a one-and-one situation with 22.9 seconds to play for a 45-42 lead. Traevin Harrison split a pair of freebies with 10 seconds to go for a 46-42 advantage before Ashland’s Garrett Denbow hit a corner 3 at the buzzer.
Second-Half Surge: The Arrows trailed 21-16 at the half but outscored Lex 20-8 in the third quarter. Denbow had eight points in the period while Griffin Gerwig added five.
“We were able to get some stops on defense and we got out and ran,” Ashland coach Jason Hess said. “We didn’t have to go against their half court defense. Lexington does a really nice job in the half court. We were able to make it more of a spread game up and down the floor.
“I messed up to start the fourth quarter. I was trying to get some guys some rest and I over-thought things and we lost the momentum with my substitutions.”
Battle of the Boards: The undersized Minutemen outrebounded the Arrows 35-30. Cade Stover and Dana Shoulders each swiped seven boards.
“When we were in the locker room in the pregame I told the guys I really believed whoever wins the boards was going to win the game,” Lex coach Scott Hamilton said. “It was a little bit of a challenge for my guys because I don’t think we’ve been rebounding as well as what we are capable of.
“We may not have the length that Ashland does. I don’t know many teams that do, but I think we’ve got some athleticism where we can get in there and disrupt some of those boards and come down with them ourselves. It’s a matter of heart and toughness.”
Any Given Friday: Lexington’s two OCC wins are by a combined three points. The Minutemen beat Madison 51-49 in overtime last week.
“To me, that just shows the parity that the OCC has,” Hamilton said. “We’ve got a lot of good teams. I really like it when every conference game is like this.”
