LEXINGTON — The school week ended Friday afternoon for Lexington High School.
But the learning for the unbeaten Minutemen continued into the evening during a 59-45 boys’ basketball win against Ohio Cardinal Conference foe Ashland.
For Lexington coach Scott Hamilton, it was a teachable moment on a night his 3-0 team trailed Ashland (0-4) by one point at halftime after the Arrows connected on six of seven 3-point shots in the second quarter.
“We’re not where we want to be. We’ve got to make sure we keep working and keep going after it. To be able to come out of a game like this with a win instead of a loss is good.
“We can use it in practices and remind guys, ‘Hey, when you take a play off, against a solid player, they’re gonna knock down those shots.’ “
“We were talking about respecting our opponents no matter what the record is. We feel our conference is very competitive. (Ashland) was 0-3 coming in and we’re down one at halftime.
“We’re not going to go out and score 80 points every night and we’ve got to make sure that we can play in the halfcourt (and) we can defend the half court,” he said.
Freshman Brayden Fogle keyed Lexington’s third quarter with eight points as the Minutemen outscored the Arrows 15-9 to regain the lead for good. Ashland connected on just one of 11 triple attempts in the second half.
“When you make shots, it covers up a lot of things,” said Ashland coach Jason Hess, whose team won the OCC title a year ago. “By being able to make shots in the second quarter, we obviously covered up a lack of size.”
Size is a problem most teams will face against a Lexington squad that starts 6-8 Elijah Hudson, 6-7 Baden Forup, 6-3 Hudson Moore and the 6-4 Fogle. The only player for Ashland taller than 6-2 is 6-5 freshman Nathan Bernhard.
Lexington owned a 42-24 edge in rebounding, including 15 on offense that led to a 13-4 edge in second-chance points.
“I thought our kids played hard and competed all night,” said Hess, whose varsity roster includes three freshmen, two of whom start.
The Arrows are still looking to replace Luke Denbow, who graduated after setting the school scoring record.
“We’re just a little limited on what we can do. I’m happy with our kids’ effort and the wins are going to come. We have just got to continue to stay the course.”
Hamilton, whose team built a 20-10 lead early in the second quarter, noted the Minutemen had more turnovers (12) than assists (eight).
“I thought tonight we took some quick shots, some ugly shots, some really unnecessary shots. And then we were trying for maybe a ‘hero’ or ‘home run play,'” he said.
“In transition, it just wasn’t there. (Ashland) got their hands on it and came up with it, so we’ve just got to be smarter. I have got a veteran group to work with and we have got to make sure that one benefits us.”
For Hess, it’s a matter of his young team not making excuses.
“It’s not like we’re going to have any game where we have a size advantage. So we’ve got to figure out a way to find how to get those rebounds, how to score against taller guys.
“Being able to shoot the ball like we did there in the second quarter … that helps utilize some of that stuff. Then they’ve got to come out and guard us. Unfortunately, we kind of went cold there in the second half a little bit and, I didn’t think we got quite as good a looks as we did early,” Hess said.
STATISTICALLY SPEAKING: Fogle led Lexington with 21 points and 14 rebounds, including five offensive, shooting nine of 13 from the field and three-for-three at the line.
Forup had 14 points on five of eight shooting and had eight rebounds. Senior point guard A.J. Younf had 13 points, including three of six 3-point attempts.
Senior guard Grayson Steury led Ashland with 13 points and seven rebounds, though he didn’t have a field goal in the second half. Senior Keslar Bates added 11 for the Arrows.
UP NEXT: Ashland, 0-2 in the OCC, hosts Clyde on Saturday night in a non-league game. Lexington hosts Madison on Tuesday night in an OCC game.
