MANSFIELD — Records don’t matter much when crosstown rivals Mansfield Senior and Madison collide.
The Rams proved that yet again on Tuesday night.
Senior High’s Kyevi Roane scored 23 of his game-high 25 points in the second half as the Tygers rallied for a 56-49 win in an Ohio Cardinal Conference clash at Pete Henry Gym.
Mansfield Senior (9-2, 6-1) trailed 26-18 at the half. The Tygers outscored the Rams (1-10, 1-6) 38-23 in the second half.
“We were going through the motions in the first half. We weren’t really playing Tyger basketball,” Senior High coach Marquis Sykes said. “The second half certainly wasn’t perfect, but it was closer to the way we want things to look.
“We played with a lot more energy and a lot more effort.”
A 16-4 second-quarter spurt gave the Rams a shocking, 26-18 halftime advantage. It seemed Madison was on the verge of a stunning upset.
But Roane, a 6-foot-1 junior swingman, scored 17 of Senior High’s 20 points in the third quarter to right the ship. He did most of his damage at or near the rim with an assortment of mid-range jumpers.
“He is an outstanding player. He does a lot of things really well,” Madison coach Chris Armstrong said of Roane. “He’s kind of got an old-school game where he gets to the rim and uses his strength.
“He has a really good understanding of the game.”
Roane needed just 13 shots to score his 25 points. He was a remarkably efficient 11-for-13 from the floor.
“We went into the locker room at halftime and everybody was pretty fired up,” Roane said. “We knew we weren’t doing what we were supposed to do. We had to turn the page.
“We have a lot of guys who have played together for a long time, so there was never really any panic.”
The game was tied 38-38 going to the fourth quarter, but the Tygers used a 9-2 run to take control. Roane scored six points during the spurt, while Rashad Reed Jr. knocked down a 3-pointer to give Senior High a 47-40 advantage with 4:04 remaining.
Madison’s Owen Wigton responded with a trey of his own to cut Mansfield Senior’s lead to 47-43 with 3:52 to play. A Wigton steal and layup with 3:34 remaining sliced the deficit to 47-45.
But Ja’Ontay O’Bryant’s conventional three-point play with 2:53 left pushed Senior High’s edge to 50-45. An O’Bryant floater in the lane with 1:47 remaining gave the Tygers a 52-47 lead and the Tygers closed it out by connecting on 4-of-6 free throws in the final minute.
Reed backed Roane with 12 points. O’Bryant added seven points, while Duke Reese had four points and a game-high six rebounds. Karion Lindsay had five points, five rebounds and seven assists.
Will Kepple topped Madison with 13 points and five rebounds. Wigton had 12 points, while Cameron Kuhn chipped in seven points and Eli Lewis added six.
“We’re now getting healthy and we just need to maintain a level of enthusiasm,” Armstrong said. “We’re whole for the first time in several weeks and we’re figuring out who we are and how we need to play.”