ASHLAND — Kyevi Roane took command Tuesday night inside Arrow Arena.
Mansfield Senior’s do-it-all point forward scored 15 points, grabbed eight rebounds and distributed six assists as the Tygers held on for a 66-59 Ohio Cardinal Conference win at Ashland.
Roane’s calming influence was especially evident in the fourth quarter as Senior High (5-0, 3-0) kept the Arrows (3-2, 1-1) at bay.
Ashland cut Mansfield Senior’s lead to four points on several occasions, but could never make it a one-possession game thanks in large part to Roane. He did the bulk of the ball-handling and committed just one turnover against Ashland’s scrambling defense.
“I like playing the point guard spot,” said Roane, who needs 47 points to become just the eighth player in program history to reach the 1,000-point plateau. “I’ve always considered myself a facilitator, now I’m just doing it at a higher rate.”
Mansfield Senior led 55-48 entering the fourth quarter, but the Arrows cut it to 55-51 on a Paxon Ediger runner with 7:28 remaining.
A pair of Roane free throws with 3:45 to play gave the Tygers a 61-53 advantage, but the Arrows again cut the margin to four points on back-to-back layups by Gabe Baith and Ediger to make it 61-57 with 3:11 showing.
“We had opportunities to cut the lead to two points a couple of times and we stubbed our toe,” Ashland coach Jason Hess said. “If we could have gotten the lead and made them chase us instead of us chasing them, you never know how it would have turned out.”
Senior High iced it by making 5-of-8 free throws in the final two minutes. Roane put it away by splitting a pair of freebies with 18.3 seconds remaining.
‘It’s great to have a guy like that, especially at the end of the game,” Senior High coach Marquis Sykes said. “He can get to the free throw line and knock down free throws. He’s a guy who is hard to get pressure on and hard to speed up.
“He controls the tempo and makes sure guys are in the right spots and he makes plays down the stretch.”
Five different Tygers hit 3-pointers as Mansfield Senior built a 20-11 first-quarter lead. Senior High connected on 8-of-16 triples in the first half and 11-of-23 for the game.
“It’s a little different Mansfield team than we’ve seen in the past with so many guys who can shoot it,” Hess said. “They shot it extremely well in the first quarter.”
Making matters worse for Ashland, Ediger picked up his second foul with 1:57 remaining in the opening period and was used sparingly in the second quarter. He scored 14 points in the first half in less than 11 minutes of floor time.
“That hurt us a little bit when he got his second foul and had to come out,” Hess said. “That really disrupts what we’re trying to do offensively.”
Ediger paced the Arrows with a game-high 28 points, Baith added 12 points and six assists before fouling out with 1:48 left.
“That kind of shifted everyone around a little bit,” Hess said. “Instead of Gabe bringing the ball up, we had to have Paxon bring it up.”
Freshman Kaylen Brooks led Senior High with 20 points, 15 in the first half. He was backed by Roane and Andrew Brooks Jr., who had 14 points and six rebounds and did an admirable job defending Nathan Bernhard, Ashland’s 6-foot-5, 227-pound power forward.
“Andrew is a tough kid. He’s a little undersized in the post, but he’s going to fight,” Sykes said. “I love that about Andrew. He’s ultra-competitive and he’s going to do whatever we ask him to do.”
Mansfield Senior returns to action Friday at Lexington. The Minutemen lost at Wooster on Tuesday. The Arrows visit Wooster on Friday.