Home cooking: Lucas tops Northmor, wins 31st consecutive home game
LUCAS — When the Lucas Cubs walk out of their home locker room for a game, their confidence is already at an all-time high.
Maybe it is the unique atmosphere of the Cubs Cave or the home fans always filling up the old-school metal bleachers. Or it could be the familiarity of playing in the gym from the countless hours of practice. Whatever it is, it helped them beat Northmor 48-41 on Tuesday night to push their home winning streak to 31 games.
The Cubs' last loss at home was a 56-50 loss to Plymouth on Feb. 17, 2018. Since then, it's been 31 up, 31 down, with the Golden Knights being the latest victims.
"It is a special place and huge for us," Lucas junior Corbin Toms, who led all scorers with 20 points on Tuesday night, said. "But it really isn't about this team, it is more about teams when Coach (Taylor) Iceman took over with Logan Niswander and Jeb Grover, who worked their butts off to establish this program again. You don't want to be the group to let them down and lose their success."
Iceman, who played at Lucas from 2001-2004 and is the Cubs' all-time leader in coaching wins with 112, echoed Toms and used the past to motivate the future.
"The boys know they don't want to be the ones to see it end under their watch," Iceman said. "We struggle shooting at other places, so it is always good to play at home where we shoot it better. We play great defense on this floor, too, but they know about the streak and do not want to be the guys to let it up."
But win No. 31 didn't come easily. Northmor gave the Cubs everything they could handle. After the Knights came out in a zone defense, as nearly every other opponent has against Lucas this season, the Cubs got out to a slow start.
"We struggle with it even though we practice against it all the time," Iceman said. "I told the boys, it is similar to our football team's offense. It is something different that you do not see a ton of, and no matter how much time you put in to prepare for it, it isn't the same. It is like when a scout team tries to run our football offense — you never really get a good look.
"We never play zone, so to ask our guys to come out and help us in practice prepare against a zone is unfair. We look good against it in practice, but how good is our scout team really running it? It is tough, but you keep doing what you can and we are going to get a lot of experience against it."
Northmor coach Blade Tacket saw the zone work, but the Knights didn't quite have the offense to go with it. After knocking down a 3-pointer to start the game, Northmor surrendered the lead by scoring just two more points after that to trail 14-5 at the end of one.
"When we turn it over like we did in the first half and they make open 3s (the Cubs made three 3-pointers in the first half), get up eight or nine, it is time to come out of (the zone)," Tacket said. "I believe we could defend them in man, but we wanted to get them out of their comfort zone, but when we did play man we were very solid."
The Cubs built a 26-16 lead at the half as Corbin and Logan Toms combined for all 12 of the Cubs' points in the second quarter.
Northmor came out in the third quarter with a different intensity. They cut the lead to 26-20 before Lucas finally got on the board with 2:35 left in the quarter. The two teams traded buckets and the Cubs took a 32-25 lead into the final eight minutes.
But the first five minutes of the third quarter allowed Northmor to get right back in the game, just as Tacket had hoped.
"We always emphasize the first five minutes of the third quarter," Tacket said. "That is when a game can be decided, whether we claw back from down 10 or we have the lead. It gave us a chance in the fourth to get it to within a possession. We hit a big 3 to cut it to four and had a breakaway layup to get it to one possession, but we didn't convert after they made a nice play."
The Knights made things interesting when Caleb Schnuerer drilled a corner 3-pointer with 3:36 left in the game to make it 38-34, but the Cubs closed the game out with a 10-7 advantage to earn the win.
Corbin and Logan Toms scored all but three of the Cubs' 16 points in the fourth quarter and all but three of their 24 second-half points. The Toms boys combined for 38 of the Cubs' 48 points. While that may worry some coaches, Iceman said he was happy to see his two go-to guys step up when others were having a tough offensive night.
"Yes and no, but we will have nights like tonight where some of those other guys struggle offensively," Iceman said. "It is nice to have two guys you can count on when your other guys aren't going. For the most part, we have four guys who can score in double figures, but Corbin and Logan are our scorers. We will have off nights, but to say we had off nights and still get a win, we will take it."
For Corbin, it was all about wanting the ball in his hands with the game on the line. He and Logan combined to go 5 of 8 from the free-throw line in the fourth quarter.
"When it gets down to it, I see Logan and he wants the ball in his hands," Toms said. "I want the ball in my hands when the game is on the line, and we were both confident we could make free throws down the stretch. It was nice to see him knock those big free throws down at the end."
The Cubs (12-3) picked up two gritty wins after falling 35-34 to Central Christian last week for their only Mid-Buckeye Conference loss. They then overcame a slow first half against Mansfield Christian to win by 15.
It was exactly the type of response Iceman had hoped for.
"I knew we would respond even after we had a very bad first half against Mansfield Christian," Iceman said. "I couldn't even get mad. Everyone wondered what I said to them at halftime, and I didn't even say a whole lot, just told them we weren't being us. But two good wins and we hope to keep it going. We can't do anything with that one loss. It is done and behind us."
The Cubs host St. Peter's on Friday.
Graesin Cass scored 14 points and Maxton Lower and Grant Bentley added 11 apiece to give Northmor (8-9) three players in double figures.
"Max was tough all game as he always is and Graesin had a nice game in the second half limiting his turnovers and scoring around the basket," Tacket said. "We just have to do things right in the first half against a super discipline team like Lucas. We cannot let a 10-point deficit happen."
The Knights are off for the week and travel to Crestline on Feb. 2.
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This article originally appeared on Mansfield News Journal: Lucas tops Northmor, wins 31st consecutive home game
