ASHLAND – It’s not easy for a basketball team to find new ways to win after starting a season 6-0.
The Lexington boys did it anyway Friday night at Ashland High School.
Punishingly successful inside the paint through six games, the Minutemen hit four of their first five tries from 3-point land against the Arrows and finished a season-best 12-of-24 from downtown in an 88-54 rout.
The Ohio Cardinal Conference rivals swapped leads four times in the first quarter, with Ashland (2-5, 0-4 OCC) going ahead 9-8 on a Nathan Bernhard bucket with 2:57 to play.
But Lex (7-0, 4-0) scored nine points in the last 1:09 of the quarter, part of a 21-3 run fueled by 6-foot-4 forward Brayden Fogle.
The sophomore scored 10 of his 18 first-half points in a 3-minute stretch and Ashland was left looking for answers that never came on defense.
The 88 points were a season-high mark for the Minutemen, who are dabbling with setting the program record for points per game (75.04) one-third of the way through the regular season.
The only team to get within 24 points of LHS thus far was Madison in a 60-49 loss.
“So far this year we’ve not shot the 3 with any volume or consistency,” Lex coach Scott Hamilton said. “Everything for us has been finishing at the rim, so tonight to go 12-for-24 (was good).
“We know that we’re a better shooting team, we just hadn’t done it when the lights are on.”
The stakes were similar when the Minutemen visited Arrow Arena last season, as they entered an undefeated 11-0 with their crosshairs set on an eventual OCC title.
But Ashland nearly pulled off the upset in a 55-53 loss that night. It was a far cry from Friday’s matchup, when Lex scored at least 21 points in every quarter and didn’t even allow the hosts a single free-throw shot.
“Now that they’re playing with such a fast-paced tempo, they just ran us out of the gym, basically,” Arrows coach Jason Hess said. “They’ve got the luxury with their size and athleticism, they can almost send two guys to the defensive glass and let the other three guys take off down the floor.”
Ashland was left still looking for its first home win of the season despite getting double-digit points from Gabe Baith (16 points), Tyler Sauder (12 points, five rebounds) and Bernhard (10 points, seven rebounds, four assists).
Baith has been the team’s leading scorer in six consecutive games, as he knocked down all four of his 3-point makes for the game (a team season-high) in the third quarter.
Unfortunately, Lex held him scoreless in the first half and those buckets couldn’t make a dent in the deficit.
Even though Fogle, who also had seven rebounds, didn’t score in the second half, fellow LHS forward Elijah Hudson continued rolling en route to a season-high 21 points. The 6-8 senior added seven rebounds and three blocked shots, giving him 24 blocks (3.4 per game) already for the season, and was also one of three Minutemen to sink a trio of 3-pointers.
“It shows how diverse we are as a team,” said Fogle, who did all his scoring inside the perimeter. “I feel like some people doubted our 3-point shooting, but after tonight I don’t think there’s very much they can say about it.”
Guards Seven Allen (11 points, five assists) and Jakob Legron (nine points) also each hit three 3-pointers for Lex, which got another 11 points from Dantrell Hughes and a game-high eight rebounds from Joe Caudill.
It was the first time the Arrows had given up more than 64 points all season.
“We decided we were going to try to defend the paint first and they still shot 60 percent in the paint,” Hess said. “That’s the disappointing thing – if they’d have shot 20 percent in the paint because we played good defense and then they beat us out there shooting the 3, then we said we’d live with it. But we didn’t.
“They just got really comfortable and that’s how you get a 34-point (loss).”
The 54 points allowed to the Arrows actually were a season-high for the LHS defense, another testament to the squad’s nonstop dominance so far this winter.
Hamilton said it’s a good thing to see for one of the youngest playing rotations he’s ever had – five sophomores in his top eight players.
“My concern going into this year was I thought we had the ability to score some points, but I didn’t know if I could get these guys to believe in defending,” he said. “So far, they’ve really believed in playing defense and locking teams up.”
Lexington is back in action Saturday against Ontario, while Ashland won’t play again until a road game at Madison (1-6, 1-3) next Friday.