LEXINGTON – A slow start to the season makes it unlikely Ashland will successfully defend its Ohio Cardinal Conference basketball title.
But the Arrows plan to have a huge say in who takes their crown.
Ashland stunned league-leading Lexington 61-51 on Friday night, handing the state’s No. 3 Division II team only its second loss of the season.
The Arrows, who started the year 1-6 under first year coach Jason Hess, evened their record at 8-8 overall, posting their fifth win in the last six games. Ashland is 6-4 in the OCC. Lexington (16-2, 8-2) saw its five-game winning streak snapped.
“We can definitely play spoilers,” Hess said. “We still have games with Mansfield Senior and Wooster. Who knows … it’s a crazy season. Obviously no one is going to run the table.”
20-0 RUN
Ashland trailed 18-12 midway through the second quarter. That’s when the Arrows went on a 20-0 run, building a 32-18 lead before Lexington finally scored with 4:37 left in the third quarter.
“We just could not score,” Lexington coach Scott Hamilton said. “We didn’t have the movement on offense we typically do and it comes down to not hitting shots when you are open.
“Credit Ashland. Their 1-3-1 match-up zone defense is unique. But our guys felt there we things we could have done better and some shots we could have hit.”
The Arrows took only 38 shots and limited the normally high-scoring Minutemen to just 48. Hess said it was not his team’s intent to slow the game’s pace.
“We wanted to take great shots and we wanted to make them work for every shot they took,” he said.
All five Ashland starters finished in double figures, a good thing since the Arrows got zero points from their bench. Junior Grant Denbow and junior John Wolfe each had 14. Senior Logan Brewer had 12, junior Griffin Gerwig had 11 and senior Zach Stoops finished with 10.
“In games we have played our best this season, that is the kind of balance we have seen. We finally have everyone healthy. There was a learning curve this season, starting with me as a first-year varsity coach. Some of our players had time last year, but they are in new roles this season. Since Christmas, we have started to jell and come together as a team.”
DEFENSE CAN’T REST
While he talked about his team’s offensive struggles, Hamilton pointed the finger at his defense.
“We will have nights that we don’t shoot the ball well, but the defense has to carry us through. Our defense has to be consistent no matter how we are shooting the ball,” Hamilton said.
The Arrows shot just 45 percent (17 of 38) from the field, but hit 83 percent from the line (24 of 29), including 17 of 20 in the fourth quarter as Lexington was forced to foul.
Lex cut the Ashland lead to 41-38 with 5:46 still left, but the Arrows ran off the next nine points to expand the gap back to 12.
“We were looking at the stats to see who we should put on the line,” Hamilton said. “But they all hit the shots.”
Crucial for Ashland was taking advantage of Lexington mistakes. The Minutemen committed just 12 turnovers, but the Arrows scored 20 points off the miscues.
COLD NIGHT
Lexington senior guard Joey Zahn, one of the area’s leading scorers, was limited to seven points, hitting just 3 of 15 shots, including just 1 of 8 from behind the arc. He did record nine assists. Fellow senior post Jonah Yaussy, the team’s second leading scorer, had just six points on five shots.
That left it to freshman Cade Stover to carry the load. The athletic 6-foot-5 post had 21 points on 9 of 12 shooting. He also led all players with 14 rebounds, including Lexington’s only five offensive boards.
“We wanted to take away their inside game,” Hess said. “We did a good job, but Cade Stover had a big night.”
Senior wing Joe Vore added 11 for the Minutemen, who travel to West Holmes on Tuesday before coming back to host Wooster next Friday. The Generals handed Lexington its other loss, beating the Minutemen 69-66 earlier this month.
Ashland hosts Orrville tonight in another OCC game.
