LEXINGTON — Lexington head coach Scott Hamilton and assistant coach Dr. Jay Guth looked at one another and laughed about a high-scoring 78-69 win against Ashland on Friday night.
It was the eighth-straight win for Lexington, a team which dominates opponents with a stingy defense that seldom allows teams past the half-century mark.
“We’re used to facing teams that don’t have good shooting nights,” Hamilton said with a smile.
Guth laughed, “Ashland didn’t get the memo.”
What Ashland got was a great outside shooting performance (14 of 31 from behind the arc) in pushing Lex to the end in the Ohio Cardinal Conference game.
Lexington’s defense has dominated opponents during its current eight-game winning streak, often not allowing an land opponent to reach the half-century mark.
But Ashland had four players in double figures and actually had two quarters of more than 20 points each. During the third quarter, the Arrows had three point leads of 39-36 and 41-38.
With the win, coupled with Mansfield Senior’s 65-58 loss to Wooster on Friday night, Lexington gains sole possession of first in the OCC. The Minutemen are 7-1 in the league and 12-3 overall. Mansfield Senior and Wooster both have two league losses.
Ashland slipped to 11-6 overall and 6-3 in the league.
OUTSIDE/INSIDE: The game was a true style clash between Ashland’s three-point shooting prowess against Lexington’s game power game inside.
Seven different Arrows connected on triples, led by three each from senior Garrett Denbow, freshman Luke Denbow and junior Mitchell Heilman. The Arrows took seven more three-point attempts than they did two-point tries (31 to 24).
The Minutemen countered by outscoring the Arrows, 26-6, in the paint and dominating the boards with a 40-24 rebounding edge.
Ashland coach Jason Hess was again pleased with his offense.
“We shot the ball really well. We have shot the ball well for a few weeks now. We just couldn’t string together enough stops in a row,” Hess said.
“Give (Lexington) credit. They made some big shows and executed well on offense. It’s hard to win games when you’re giving up 78 points,” Hess said.
Trailing 43-42 with 5:11 left in the third quarter, Lexington went on a 15-3 run that built the lead to to 57-46 with just under six minutes left in the fourth.
Keying the run was senior forward Cade Stover, who finished with 34 points and 11 rebounds, including 10 of 12 from the foul line in the second half.
Before the game, Hamilton expressed concern about how to slow down Ashland’s plethora of outside shooters. Afterward, he said his concerns were well-founded.
“If you are standing right in front of them, but your hands are down … they are open. That is their mindset,” Hamilton said. “We tried to keep guys focused on getting right into their bodies.
“But we are here celebrating a ‘W’ right now and we are tickled to death about that,” Hamilton said.
PERFECT POSITIONING: Stover’s teammates were able to find the powerful 6-5, 225-pound OSU football recruit all night long.
Stover finished connecting on 11 of 20 shots and also pulled down five offensive rebounds. Senior guard Ben Vore had five assists and senior guard Kyle Johnston had four.
“My teammates got me the ball where I needed it and that made my job easy,” Stover said.
Hamilton said it was more than good passing.
“Once Kyle hit a couple of shots, (Nick) Stehle hit a couple and Josh (Aiello) was pretty aggressive, it made (Ashland) focus on defending everyone else and they weren’t able to focus on double-teaming (Stover),” Hamilton said.
Hamilton is far from secure in the knowledge his Minutemen have first place to themselves in the OCC.
“We still have to play at Mansfield Senior and play Wooster twice. We know there is still a lot of basketball to be played. If we go out there and play like we’re capable of playing, I think we can be right there at the top with anyone else,” Hamilton said.
STATISTICALLY SPEAKING: In addition to Stover’s 34 points, Lexington got 13 from Aiello, coming off the bench after his illness, 12 from Johnston and 11 from Vore.
Senior Garrett Denbow and freshman Luke Denbow both had 17 for Ashland. Heilman addedd 11 and junior Klejhan Randleman had 10.
Lexington shot 51 percent from the field (29-57), including five of 20 triples. Ashland shot 42 percent from the field, including 14 of 31 three-pointers.
Three Minutemen had five rebounds each to back Stover on the boards — Johnston, senior guard Jacob Depperschmidt and Stehle. Randelman led Ashland with six.
Both teams had nine turnovers.
UP NEXT: Lexington hosts Madison on Tuesday in another OCC game. Ashland hosts Shelby tonight in a non-league game.
