Lexington survives scrappy Wooster in OCC boys basketball to remain undefeated
LEXINGTON — Lexington learned a valuable lesson on Tuesday night.
No matter what, the Minutemen are walking around with an X on their backs, and each and every night they are going to get their opponents' best shot. That is the territory that comes with being undefeated. And that is what happened when Wooster gave Lexington everything it could handle in a fierce 69-66 Ohio Cardinal Conference win for the Minutemen.
Lexington (8-0, 6-0) found itself all alone in first place in the OCC after Ashland beat Mansfield Senior across town, handing the Tygers their first league loss of the season. With how fragile a season is, Lexington coach Scott Hamilton was happy to end the night with a W.
"I believe that it doesn't matter who you are, anytime you get past Jan. 1 with no losses you will get the best your opponent can give," Hamilton said. "It doesn't matter what the record is because they are playing loose, without concern and with nothing to lose.
"If we are going to achieve what we want to achieve, we have to make sure discipline is something we step on the floor with every single night."
After taking a 35-23 halftime lead, the Minutemen started the second half on a 5-0 run on a layup by Baden Forup and a 3-pointer by Elijah Hudson to take their biggest lead of the night at 40-23, and the real threat of a blowout victory was on the horizon.
But Wooster had other plans. The Generals outscored the Minutemen 16-14 in the third quarter and 27-20 in the fourth for a 43-34 advantage in the second half. They found themselves trailing 57-44 early in the fourth quarter but, after a missed dunk attempt by Hudson, the Generals caught some momentum and nearly completed the comeback by outscoring Lex 19-12 the rest of the way, including Blake Bowen's 3 at the buzzer.
"It has been our story all year," Wooster coach Michael Snowbarger said. "The kids play so well together, and any game where we have had adversity we have always fought back, and that is a great sign going into the future. It is a true team atmosphere. But there were just a couple of breakdowns that you cannot have against a good team. There were two or three times we gave up offensive rebounds off of free throws. Against a team like Lexington, they will make you pay for it."
The Generals gave up 13 offensive rebounds, seven alone to Forup — who finished with a game-high 21 points and 10 boards — and 37 total rebounds. They did shoot it nicely from deep, going 7 of 16, but were ice cold from the free-throw line, shooting just 11 of 21 (52%).
Snowbarger will send his team to the free-throw line quite often in practice over the next week.
"It has been an issue all year," Snowbarger said. "We started out the year shooting 80% and it has gone down since then. But it was encouraging to make some 3s tonight because that has been our Achilles' heel a little bit. We have a ton of inexperience with just two kids with major varsity experience back from last year, so when you look at that and where we are, it will all pay off. The kids have to stick together, and I know they will."
Lexington gave up 19 offensive rebounds as the Generals owned a 13-12 advantage in second-chance points. But, at the end of the day, the Minutemen earned a win over Wooster in the OCC, and that is a feat in itself.
"We got a W against Wooster, and that is always a big thing in the grand scheme of things," Hamilton said. "We gave up 19 offensive boards and that is unlike us. I feel like we got too relaxed at times. I looked up at one point and we were on the verge of getting a 20-point lead and then we had some bad turnovers and took a couple of bad shots. Little things that we need to work on.
"We got relaxed and I told the guys, 'Good teams won't do that.' Credit to Wooster. When they got momentum, they hit shots and made a nice comeback. They have some nice players, and we knew that. For most of the game, I thought we did a nice job defending them, but when you give a team 19 offensive boards, that is tough."
Lexington shot 24 of 50 from the field and was 6 of 10 from 3 as Gavin Husty was a perfect 3 of 3 from beyond the arc and finished with 11 points. Hudson was 3 of 7 from deep and finished with 14 points.
But there were times in the second half when the Minutemen seemed to force contested shots when there was a better shot to be taken.
That was addressed after the game.
"When we were trying to execute a set or an out-of-bounds play, I felt like there were some rushed shots," Hamilton said. "We might have been open and I will not debate that with the guys, but it was not the shot the play was designed to give us. We addressed it in the locker room at the end of the game. When we run the play, run the play and then we will get in our halfcourt offense. We were a little out of rhythm."
Freshman Brayden Fogle had an efficient night with 19 points on 7-of-8 shooting and was 5 of 7 from the free-throw line. He said the Minutemen slipped into a slump in the second half and just had to play through it.
"We really just had an off night," Fogle said. "We had to work ourselves out of a slump and it took us a little bit. We had some tough turnovers and simple mistakes and it allowed Wooster back in the game. We feel like we should have won the game by much more than we did, but you have to give Wooster credit for fighting back."
Lexington turned it over 14 times to Wooster's 12.
Despite shooting 48% from the field and 62% from the free-throw line, the Minutemen managed to come away with a victory and now sit alone atop the OCC.
"It goes to show that even when we don't play our best, we can still make things happen," Fogle said. "We showed that tonight, but we don't want any more games like this. We have to get focused before the game and keep that focus throughout the game and even into practice."
Wooster (5-6, 3-3) was led by Brady Bowen with 20 points, while Caleb Scott added 17 points and nine rebounds and Blake Bowen had 13 points. Scott added nine rebounds and Brady Bowen had five assists.
With a young and inexperienced team, Snowbarger said he is seeing a lot of progress.
"We are definitely seeing a lot of growth," he said. "We started out with Jackson and undefeated Revere with St. V's and Shelby coming up. Our out-of-conference schedule if very tough and it doesn't get easier when we get into OCC play. I like where the kids are going, and as we continue to pay hard and limit our turnovers we will continue to grow."
Lexington's busy week continues on Friday with West Holmes coming in before Clear Fork visits on Saturday. Wooster hosts Madison on Friday.
jfurr@gannett.com
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This article originally appeared on Mansfield News Journal: Lexington beats Wooster in Ohio Cardinal Conference boys basketball
