ASHLAND – The Ashland boys basketball team probably felt like it was floating on air Tuesday after its scintillating, 97-93 win at Mansfield Senior in triple overtime.
The game was one of the wildest in program history and it placed the Arrows all alone in first in the Ohio Cardinal Conference – a half-game up on Dover – with three league contests to go.
Returning home Friday, though, Ashland crashed back to earth against New Philadelphia, which threw a massive wrench into the chase for the OCC crown.
Featuring the league’s best defense, the Quakers stymied Ashland’s offense for the second time this season, never trailing in a 60-44 victory.
Star senior guard Paxon Ediger dropped in a game-high 26 points for AHS, but half of those came via a 13-for-13 performance at the free-throw line.
Senior Reed Emmons (nine points) was the only other Arrow to score more than five points on a night during which Ashland made just 11 total shots from the field (11-of-38).
“With where we were after Tuesday, we were feeling pretty good and you want to get greedy and (beat New Philly as well),” AHS head coach Jason Hess said, “but it’s tough to do and unfortunately tonight just wasn’t our night.
“I definitely still feel like we’re in good shape (in the OCC race). It’s gonna be hard to win it outright, but anything’s possible at this point.”
Friday’s outcome sends the OCC into a bit of chaos as the league heads down its home stretch.
The Arrows (10-7, 9-3) now trail Dover (11-6, 9-2) by a half-game, while Mansfield Senior (12-6, 8-4) and New Philadelphia (12-5, 7-4) are still not out of the picture.
Ashland has just two league games to go – road outings at West Holmes (4-11, 1-9) next Friday and at Lexington (6-11, 3-7) on Feb. 13.
Dover, meanwhile, still has games against the Knights, Mansfield Senior and New Philly.
There’s a reality where Ashland could win the OCC title outright, but another one where the league could finish with a four-way tie for first place.
Entering Friday at Arrow Arena, AHS had averaged 66.7 points per game at home, but the Quakers held Ashland to just one field goal in the game’s first 11 minutes.
New Philadelphia’s 13-0 run from late in the second quarter to early in the third turned a tie game (18-18) into a 31-18 separation.
That stretch essentially created the final margin, as the Arrows scored their fewest points in a home game since their season-opener in 2023-24 against Norwalk (a 39-37 loss).
It also followed an offensively stunted loss for Ashland at New Philadelphia on Jan. 2, 63-37.
“Our guys have executed the scouting reports (against AHS); they do everything you want as a coach,” Quakers head coach Zach Ross said. “You put this plan together and spend all this time as a coach, but the credit goes to them because they have to do the hard part.
“The guys deserved a big win like this and we needed it moving forward.”
The Arrows and Quakers both hit five 3-pointers, and both made 17 free throws, but New Philly had the clear advantage in the paint.
Ashland mustered just six buckets inside the perimeter, and Ediger had five of them. The Quakers also held Arrows senior guard Gabe Baith – averaging 17.2 points per game entering Friday – without a field goal until just 1:26 remained in the contest.
Baith, who had 31 points in Tuesday’s classic at Mansfield Senior and has 952 in his career, was held to just five points Friday.
“They’re good defensively, they’re very fundamental, they don’t beat themselves and make mistakes,” Hess said. “I thought we had some opportunities in the first quarter to make some shots and we just didn’t do it. It was one of those nights that the ball didn’t go through the basket for us.
“They have some added length inside that we don’t match up well with, so it’s more difficult for our guys to get clean looks at the rim.”
Aidan Mushrush, a 6-foot-6 post player who missed the first meeting in New Philadelphia with the flu, ended his night with a team-high 18 points and eight rebounds.
The long-armed senior was a clear disruptor in the paint, limiting the Arrows to just a handful of offensive rebounds on a night when senior guard Quinn Miller also netted 17 points for the Quakers.
New Philadelphia was coming off a hard-to-swallow, 55-51 loss to Wooster on Tuesday that nearly evaporated its chances at the OCC title.
Now, the Quakers still have an outside shot, having won eight of their last 10.
“Tuesday we were bad and we got out-coached and out-competed at Wooster,” Ross said. “But our guys turned the page and luckily we have a senior point guard (Reid Wells) who has started for three years and he let everyone know, ‘It doesn’t matter what we did at home (against the Arrows), Ashland is a hard place to win.’
“Our guys had the right intensity and focus for the game tonight.”
Lincoln Murphy, who also missed the first game between the teams, had nine points, while Wells had eight.
The Arrows got within 36-30 midway through the third quarter after a trey from Emmons, and they were within striking distance at 42-34 heading into the fourth.
But New Philly scored 11 of the first 16 points in the final period to put it away.
Ashland will need to hunker down for the home stretch. The team lost junior Killian O’Brien on Jan. 20 to a season-ending foot injury, hurting its inside presence and overall depth and athleticism.
Hess hopes the Arrows can find a way to the finish line. They’ll be back in action at home Tuesday against Clear Fork (4-12).
“We didn’t change a whole lot of what we’re doing, we just shortened the bench a lot and we’re asking guys to play a lot more minutes (after O’Brien’s injury),” he said. “Tuesday (at Mansfield), we had four guys play over 42 minutes.
“It changes your rotation and you think a little bit about it, but injuries are part of the game, so you just move forward.”