MANSFIELD — D’Vontae Johnson felt right at home at the free throw line Friday night.
A junior guard and Mansfield Senior’s top free-throw shooter, Johnson made all four of his freebies in overtime as the Tygers held off Ashland 72-71 in Ohio Cardinal Conference action inside Pete Henry Gym.
“I wanted to be at the line,” said Johnson, who has connected on 22-of-25 free throws on the season. “I didn’t have any nerves at all.”
The Tygers (10-4, 7-1) trailed 50-47 after three quarters, but took a 62-60 lead on an Andrew Brooks layup with 52 seconds left in the fourth. Ashland’s Nathan Bernhard sank a pair of free throws with 28 seconds left to tie the score and Senior High misfired on the final shot of regulation to send the game to overtime.
A Kyevi Roane layup gave the Tygers a 64-62 lead early in the four-minute extra session and Senior High never trailed again. A pair of Roane free throws made it 66-62 before Ashland’s Tyler Sauder split a pair to make it 66-63 with 1:38 remaining.
Brooks sank two freebies with 1:22 to play to give the Tygers a 68-63 lead. Ashland (8-6, 4-5) cut Senior High’s lead to 68-65 on two Gabe Baith free throws before Johnson connected on a pair with 36 seconds left. He hit two more to give the Tygers a 72-69 lead with 12 seconds showing.
Ashland had a chance to tie it but Paxon Ediger’s contested 3-pointer was off the mark. Garret Davis corralled the miss and put in a stickback as time expired.
“The guys persevered,” Senior High coach Marquis Sykes said. “We could have hung it up after we gave up the lead in the third quarter, but we stuck with it and grinded it out and came up with a conference win.”
The Tygers led 15-14 after the first quarter and 34-32 at the half, but the Arrows opened the third on a 9-2 run to take a 41-36 lead on a Baith 3-pointer with 4:19 showing in the period. Baith finished with a game-high 26 points and grabbed a team-leading nine rebounds.
“Gabe did a really nice job of … being within himself,” Ashland coach Jason Hess said. “He didn’t try to do too much.
“He took shots when they were there and he was aggressive going to the basket. He didn’t just settle for 3s.”
Ediger backed Baith with 18 points and six boards. Reed Emmons added 13, while Bernhard had 11 points and seven rebounds.
Kaylen Brooks led Senior High with 18 points. Roane and Rashad Reed each had 16, while Andrew Brooks added 12 and Johnson had nine. Roane nearly had a triple-double. The senior grabbed a game-high 11 rebounds and handed out eight assists.
Mansfield Senior will host Lexington (13-2, 8-1) on Tuesday in a battle for the OCC lead. The Minutemen avenged their only OCC loss Friday with a 74-68 win over Wooster. The Arrows host the Generals on Tuesday.
With the postseason rapidly approaching, Hess said playing in tournament-like conditions can only help.
“Playing in close games and playing in this atmosphere, you can’t simulate this type of stuff in practice,” Hess said. “There’s no substitute for game experience.
“You’ve got to … learn from the mistakes you made and build on the positive things.”