MADISON TOWNSHIP – Madison won just its third game of the season Saturday night. But the Rams are undefeated inside their new home.
That’s because Madison refused to wilt against favored Lexington, coming back from an 11-point deficit in the first half to stop the Minutemen, 46-41.
The game was played at the new Madison Junior High, a 1,700-seat gym that the Rams will use as a varsity home.
The win improved Madison’s record to 3-7 overall and 1-5 in the Ohio Cardinal Conference. Lexington saw its three-game winning streak snapped and fell to 7-5 overall and 3-3 in the league.
Was it a big win for the Rams, whose last win came almost a month ago and who came in after a 13-point loss at Orrville on Friday night?
“I would say that’s an understatement,” Madison coach Tim Mergel said. “Winning cures a lot of things. For the first time all year, I think our kids lived in the moment.”
One Ram who certainly did was junior Coy Vantilburg, who canned a pair of long triples in the fourth quarter. The 6-foot-2 forward, who led the Rams with 13 points and seven rebounds, said his triples came after Ram guards made dribble penetration.
“They saw I was open and our coach has confidence in me to make those shots,” Vantilburg said. “It feels great, winning the first game in the new gym, especially against a rival like Lexington.”
The first triple gave the Rams, who took their first lead of the night about three minutes into the fourth quarter, a 37-33 edge with 4:37 left. The second came with 2:47 left after Lexington had tied the score at 39.
After that, the Rams defense forced two Lexington turnovers and guards Tyrell Ajian and Bryce Luckie each canned both ends of two one-and-one situations in the last minute to seal the deal. It completed a rally that saw the Rams win a game in which they trailed 23-14 at halftime.
“We had a rough night Friday night … we played a half of a game,” Mergel said. “We talked to the boys today and told them we had to have a better effort. Our problems are all related to our execution.
“We told the kids at halftime the adjustments we needed to make and they went out and fired up in the second half. It was all on our kids. They didn’t want to lose their first game in our new gym,” Mergel said.
“Coy is a gym-rat,” Mergel said. “The maintenance crew has to kick him out at night. He has embraced his role on this team now. When he is open and shoots in rhythm, I feel his shots will go in every time.”
Lexington, which held Ashland to 30 points on Friday night in a 14-point win, dominated the first half against Madison, limiting the Rams to just 11 shots from the field in the first 16 minutes and forcing eight turnovers. Senior post Zach Temple paced Lexington with eight points and seven rebounds in the first half.
The second half was the antithesis of the first. The Rams full-court press forced Lexington into seven turnovers in the final two periods, while Madison connected on 11 of 20 from the field and eight of nine at the line. The shorter, physical Rams also dominated the boards in the second half, grabbing 14 rebounds vs. just seven for Lexington.
“We just didn’t execute our plays in the second half,” Lexington coach Scott Hamilton said. “We had guys trying to do some things on their own that were not in our game plan. We didn’t get some of the looks we wanted in the second half because we stopped executing.
“We have been off and on, hot and cold in terms of our ability to handle pressure,” Hamilton said. “We didn’t make the right reads tonight. When we did beat their press, we weren’t getting anything out of it … we weren’t making them pay a price for the press.”
Ajian, a 6-0 freshman, backed Vantilburg with 11 points. Madison shot 44 percent from the field (14 of 32) and 79 percent at the line (15 of 19).
Temple and sophomore post Jonah Yaussy each had 10 points. Sophomore Joey Zahn added nine. Lexington shot 43 percent from the floor (16 of 37) and 70 percent at the line (7 of 10).
Lexington held a 24-20 edge on the boards and committed 17 turnovers to 13 for Madison.
Lexington won the JV game, 41-23, using a 10-0 second quarter to put the Rams in a hole. Freshman Chase Munro, a 6-foot-8 center, led Lexington with 11 points. Junior Ray Ashton added nine. Junior Jessie Weightman led Madison with nine while sophomore Kyle Osgar added seven.
Lexington plays Friday at Orrville in another OCC game. Madison is Ashland on Friday in a league game.
“It feels great, winning the first game in the new gym, especially against a rival like Lexington,” said junior Coy Vantilburg.
