LEXINGTON — The bright lights didn’t seem to bother Jayden Perkins.

Just a freshman, Perkins scored the game-winning basket in the waning seconds as Lexington stunned Mansfield Senior 63-61 in an entertaining early-season Ohio Cardinal Conference boys basketball showdown.

The Tygers (4-1, 2-1) tied it at 61-61 on D.J. Corbin’s layup off a Davion Mack assist with 19 seconds remaining. Lexington (4-1, 2-1) quickly advanced into the frontcourt and the ball eventually found Perkins, who drove to the bucket and scored with just seconds remaining.

“It feels great, beating a team like that,” said Perkins, who came in averaging 8.8 points a game. “I work on it in practice every day, (making) that type of shot.”

The 6-foot-1 Perkins finished with 13 points. He was 6-for-12 from the field and grabbed five rebounds.

“He’s a good freshman,” Lex coach Scott Hamilton said. “We knew that he was going to be a part of what we’re doing. We didn’t know how big of a part.

“We had a bunch of guys step up in a lot of different ways.”

Perkins was one of five Minutemen to score in double figures. Senior Dantrell Hughes led the way with 16 points and 14 boards, while fellow senior Seven Allen added 11. Elijah White matched Allen with 11 and Daniel Hudson chipped in with 10.

“I’ve got two really good seniors that have been good leaders for us,” Hamilton said. “We’re relying on two freshman and two sophomores … and they’ve been really good.

“I was surprised and excited for my young guys.”

Defense

Lexington relied heavily on a 2-3 zone and it paid dividends. The Tygers made just 24-of-64 shots, including a 5-of-22 effort from beyond the 3-point arc.

“We knew that zone was going to be a big part of tonight,” Hamilton said. “Maybe not 31 of 32 minutes.

“The kids were confident with it.”

Kaylen Brooks led Senior High with a game-high 28 points. Andrew Brooks bounced off the bench to score 13, while Corbin added eight.

“We got stagnant with the ball. We didn’t play like ourselves,” Senior High coach Marquis Sykes said. “It was a learning experience for us tonight.

“We’ll learn from it.”

Back To Earth

Mansfield Senior came in averaging 75.3 points per game.

“I think we needed tonight,” Sykes said. “We were starting to feel ourselves a little too much.

“We’ve had some good wins and had some success and we didn’t handle it well. We didn’t practice well … and it came back to get us tonight.”

Momentum

Conference championships aren’t won or lost in December, but the win is something the new-look Minutemen can build on going forward.

“This was huge for us to get at home,” Hamilton said. “We told them … this is going to have implications down the road.”