MANSFIELD, Ohio — Mario Young didn’t just join an exclusive club Saturday night. Mansfield Senior’s All-Ohio candidate nearly muscled George Swank off his perch.
The Richland Bank Athlete of the Week, Young scored 48 points in Senior High’s 84-77 win over Olentangy. Unofficially, it is the second best single-game scoring effort in program history.
Swank dropped 52 in a 90-66 win over Ashland on Jan. 7, 1955.
“I’m honored and I’m humbled,” said Young, whose previous career high was 30 points. “I don’t know what it was about Saturday. I felt good and I was being aggressive.”
A versatile 6-foot-3 senior swingman, Young scored 28 of his 48 points in the second half as the Tygers improved to 13-7. He also grabbed 11 rebounds and had eight steals.
Just how special was Saturday night?
“I played a lot of games with (Senior High great) Ricky Minard at Morehead State and I played against a lot of guys who went on to play in the NBA,” said Mansfield Senior junior varsity coach Marquis Sykes, a 1999 Tygers’ graduate who still owns the Morehead State record for career assists (606). “It was, by far, the best individual performance I’ve seen as a coach or player.
“He absolutely put us on his back. He did a little bit of everything.”
Through 20 games this season, Young is averaging 18.7 points a night. It is the fourth highest single-season scoring average since the the turn of the century, behind Minard (22.6 ppg in 1999-2000), Keon Johnson (21.8 ppg, 2011-12) and Antonio Graves (19.2 ppg, 2002-03).
Johnson, who is starring at Division I Winthrop, scored 41 points in an 89-78 sectional final win over Ashland in 2012. Jalen Watts dropped 41 in a 68-65 Senior High victory at Lima Senior in 2009.
“Honestly, I had no clue how many points I had scored until afterward,” said Young, who had 23 points in Mansfield Senior’s 72-59 win over Madison on Friday. “I never imagined that I would score 48 points in a game. It’s not something I’ve thought a lot about because we’ve still got some important games coming up. That is where my focus is at.”
The Tygers can clinch a share of the Ohio Cardinal Conference title with a win at Lexington on Friday. The Minutemen beat Senior High 77-74 in overtime in mid-January. Mansfield Senior visits undefeated Lima Senior on Saturday to close the regular season before opening sectional tournament action against Toledo Waite at Lakota High School on Feb. 23.
“This upcoming weekend is very important for us,” Young said. “Lexington got us the first time at our place. We want to get a piece of the OCC championship.”
Mansfield Senior is 7-2 since the loss to Lexington.
“We are certainly playing better basketball,” Sykes said. “Our energy and our effort has improved. We think we can be a pretty good basketball team if we continue to work.”
