MANSFIELD — Davion Mack is beginning to get comfortable.

Mansfield Senior’s rangy 6-foot-3 junior swingman scored 14 points, grabbed seven rebounds and blocked three shots as the Tygers cruised to a 62-55 win over Dover in an Ohio Cardinal Conference game that wasn’t as close as the final score suggested.

Senior High (8-2, 5-2) built a 19-point late in the third quarter and led by 13 with 1:33 left in the fourth before Dover (8-4, 6-1) closed on an 8-2 run after things were already settled.

Mack played his first two seasons at Mansfield Christian before landing at Mansfield Senior. Adjusting to his new surroundings wasn’t easy.

“Being on a team where everybody can go, I wasn’t on that team last year,” said Mack, who is averaging 11.7 points a game and has 983 career points. “I had a couple guys who could go but not everybody was a scorer.

“I had to get used to playing with these guys and sharing the ball and getting a feel for how everybody plays.”

Second-Quarter Surge

The Tygers led 10-8 after the first quarter before taking control in the second. Senior High outscored Dover 23-9 in the period to open a 33-17 halftime lead. That stretch included a 15-0 run highlighted by a pair of 3-pointers from Kaylen Brooks.

“I liked the way our guys played from four minutes in the first quarter all the way through the second quarter,” Senior High coach Marquis Sykes said. “After that I felt we … kind of took our foot off the gas pedal.

“At the end of the day we did enough to get a win.”

Mack scored eight straight points in the third quarter to put it out of reach. He was 6-for-6 from the free throw line and scored on a lob from Andrew Brooks with 2:27 to play in the period to give the Tygers a 45-26 lead.

Senior High led 47-30 after three quarters.

Spread The Wealth

Kaylen Brooks matched Mack with 14 points. D.J. Corbin added nine, while D’Vontae Johnson chipped in eight points.

Mansfield Senior pocketed 17 steals and scored 18 points off turnovers. Andrew Brooks had five steals to go with seven points.

“That’s Tyger basketball,” Sykes said. “Those are the things we want to see.

“When we’re playing that way I feel like we’ll be in a lot of our games.”

Dieter Weber led Dover with a game-high 20 points. Robbie Copple added 10.

Championship Chase

Friday’s game marked the end of the first round of OCC play. Mansfield Senior and Ashland (5-5, 5-2) trail Dover by a game.

“It was a game we absolutely needed to win,” Sykes said. “On our home court against the team that is in first place right now, it’s a game that we really needed to have.”

Senior High lost back-to-back games to Lexington and Ashland in the first half.

“We were down,” Mack said of the two-game skid. “We had a player meeting and we said, ‘We’ve got to buckle down and hoop.’ ”

Mack and his teammates knew they couldn’t afford a third OCC loss.

“This was a must-win,” Mack said. “They were No. 1 in our conference and we want that No. 1 spot.”