MOUNT VERNON — Luke Denbow and his Ashland teammates lit it up again.
A 6-foot-1 junior sharpshooter, Denbow connected on six 3-pointers and scored 28 points as the Arrows cruised an 84-71 Ohio Cardinal Conference win at Mount Vernon.
In two games this season, Ashland (2-0, 1-0) is averaging 83 points a game. The Arrows opened the season with an 82-51 win over Norwalk last weekend.
“I feel like we’re very capable offensively,” Ashland coach Jason Hess said. “A year ago we were good on offense. Our Achilles’ heel last year was getting stops. When we get stops, that really feeds our offense.”
Neither team got many stops in a high-scoring first quarter. Denbow scored 11 points while Mount Vernon’s Nolan Belcher had 11 of his own as the teams batted to a 28-28 tie.
“I’m sure it was entertaining for the fans, but for a program that preaches defense and rebounding every single day, it wasn’t as entertaining for us,” Mount Vernon coach Nick Coon said. “I thought we saw a lot of encouraging things, especially for game 1. I thought our kids competed hard. We made some mistakes, but we kept battling.”
The Yellow Jackets (0-1, 0-1) took a 31-28 lead early in the second quarter on an Owynn Gleason 3-pointer, but Ashland responded with a 17-0 run to take a 45-31 advantage. Late in the second. Sophomore guard Grayson Steury led the charge, scoring 11 of his 21 points during the spurt.
“We definitely have some guys who are capable of making shots and scoring the basketball,” Hess said. “Luke makes us go, but we’re at our best when he shares the basketball. He did that several times tonight.
“Grayson Steury and Eli White are very talented scorers as well. It’s a luxury to have three guys out there who can score.”
The Arrows led 47-38 at the half and 54-45 early in the third quarter, but the Yellow Jackets went on a 9-0 run and pulled even at 54-54 on a Beau Bridges layup with 3:55 remaining in the period. Ashland responded with a 11-0 run to take a 65-54 lead late in the period.
“We made a lot of mistakes, but we kept playing and gave ourselves a chance,” Coon said. “They are a really talented offensive team, especially those three guards.”
Ashland led 65-56 after three and opened a 70-56 lear early in the fourth before the Yellow Jackets made one final push. Mount Vernon cut Ashland’s advantage to 72-67 after a Gleason steal and layup with 5:02 remaining, but that is as close as the Jackets would get. Ashland closed on a 12-4 run to win going away.
“We thought rebounding could be a strength against them, but they negated that with offensive rebounds and second-chance points,” Coon said. “I’m not sure we’ve had a game at Mount Vernon, maybe ever, where we scored 71 points and lost. To give up that many points, that’s setting us up to fail.”
White back Denbow and Steury with 15 points, giving Ashland three players in double figures.
Blake Meyer led Mount Vernon with 26 points. Belcher had 16 and Gleason added 15.
“They’ve got a lot of new faces, but they are talented,” Hess said of the Jackets. “They beat us twice last year. You know they are going to be disciplined and well-coached.”
