ASHLAND – Gabe Baith had a chance to score his 1,000th point on a layup Saturday, but some hard contact sent him sliding across the baseline toward the Ashland jazz band as the ball tumbled off the rim.
It was far more fitting when the Arrows senior guard met his milestone 20 seconds later against Norwalk, drilling a nothing-but-net 3-pointer from the right wing off a pass from classmate Paxon Ediger.
The second-quarter bucket was one of five treys in the game – and one of 176 now in the career – for the sharp-shooting Baith.
On Senior Night, he became the 10th Arrow in history to reach 1,000 points, as Ashland flattened the visiting Truckers, 72-29.
“I think he missed that layup on purpose before that just so he could make sure he got (1,000) on a 3,” AHS head coach Jason Hess joked.
“After I got that steal I was thinking I could maybe get an and-1 (for the big basket),” Baith said. “But it was nice that 1,000 came on an assist from Pax.”
Baith led all scorers in the game with 19 points, giving him 1,004 for his career less than a month after Ediger also reached four digits (now with 1,234).
It is the first time in 118 years of Ashland basketball that two players have reached 1,000 in the same season.
“We told each other at the beginning of the season this was our goal – both to hit 1,000,” said Ediger, who finished his night with 15 points and nine rebounds. “I knew we’d do it. We just had to trust the hours that we put in in the offseason.”
“Hopefully we can go down as one of the most dynamic duos ever at Ashland,” said Baith, who also had five rebounds and five assists.
It would be hard to argue against that.
Ediger ranks fourth in scoring in program history behind only Luke Denbow (1,719), Grayson Steury (1,399) and Isaac White (1,315).
Baith, meanwhile, set the AHS football program record for career receptions in the fall and has an outside chance of running down White’s school record for career 3-pointers made (190).
The two have guided the Arrows (13-7, 10-3 Ohio Cardinal Conference) to the doorstep of the program’s first league title since 2022.
A win Friday at Lexington (6-12, 3-8) would land Ashland at least a share of the OCC crown. It also would give the Arrows their first 11-win season in league play since they went a perfect 14-0 in 2014-15.
“(Ediger and Baith) are gonna be the highest-scoring duo in a graduating class that we’ve ever had and they really enjoy playing together and feed off each other,” Hess said. “They’re just fun to coach, fun to be around and they’re great kids.”
“Gabe was a shooter from Day 1,” he added. “When he was in elementary school he would come here for open gyms and work out with our guys and he was always playing a couple years ahead.”
As a team Saturday night, the Arrows played as if they were a couple years ahead of Norwalk.
The winless Truckers were within 15-8 after a 3-pointer from Kingston Gonzales (eight points) with 4:58 left in the first quarter.
But Ashland gave up just one more field goal to Norwalk the rest of the first half, piling up a 31-4 run to hit halftime with a gaping 46-12 advantage.
The Arrows made 14 3-pointers in the game – senior Reed Emmons (16 points) had four and junior Garrett Davis (nine points) added three – and the hosts had nine of those before intermission.
The Truckers could barely get the ball inside the perimeter on offense, finishing the first half with as many turnovers (12) as they had points.
While they went 3-for-19 from downtown through two quarters, Ashland was 9-for-21 from deep over the same timeframe and the running-clock runaway was on.
By night’s end, the Arrows had improved to 8-2 at home and 12-4 over their last 16 games.
For the fourth time this season, they have won three in a row.
Additional seniors in action included Brandon Briggs (four points), Gunner Lacey and Ty Bates. Sophomore Kingston Jenkins chipped seven points in the rout as well.
Briggs, a 6-foot-3 lineman for the football team, even pulled down nine rebounds in one of his most impressive performances of the year.
“The nice thing about tonight – even though it wasn’t the most exciting game to play – we got a lot of flexibility on how we could shuttle guys in and out and get guys minutes and a chance to play on the home floor,” Hess said.
“We were able to have a milestone night with Gabe, everybody was able to contribute and we came away healthy.”
If there was a downside to the night, it was Ediger seeing his streak of consecutive made free throws end at 41. He had connected on 12 straight in overtime during Ashland’s critical win Jan. 27 at Mansfield Senior and hadn’t missed since then until splitting a pair in the third quarter Saturday.
The 41 consecutive is an AHS record and Ediger is just the 18th player in Ohio history to make at least 40 in a row, according to the OHSAA record books. Grayson Steury, a 2023 graduate, previously held Ashland’s record at 37.
“I didn’t even know I was close to the record,” Ediger said, “then after the game (Friday at West Holmes), I asked somebody if I was close and they said I had broken it. I wasn’t really thinking about it, I was just shooting.
“I struggled the past two years from the free-throw line, so I put in a little bit of work in the offseason to bring up my percentage.”
It was an all-around historic day for Ashland basketball. Earlier Saturday, Arrows junior Kennedy Lacey also broke the AHS girls’ program scoring record in a win at Dover.
Lacey (1,171 points) surpassed Kylie Radebaugh (1,150) for first on the list during a 55-43 win at Dover that gave Ashland a perfect 14-0 finish in OCC play this season.
The AHS boys will try to lock up their own OCC title rights Friday at Lexington.
Also with three league losses, Dover (12-8, 9-3) has a road league game Monday at West Holmes (4-14, 1-10), then will have to travel to New Philadelphia (14-5, 8-4) on Friday.
If the Arrows beat the Minutemen and the Tornadoes lose either of their final two OCC games, Ashland will be the outright league champ.
“We knew our chance at the conference was still there,” Baith said, “we just had to keep pushing and just focus on one game at a time.”
“We’re right where we want to be but we’ve got to take care of business next Friday,” Hess said. “It’s always a challenge when you’re playing a rival game on the road at Lex.”
