LEXINGTON − On Senior Night, it was the junior class — what there is of it — that came up big for the Lexington Minutemen.
Starter Gavin Husty and backup Jacob Legron, the only juniors on the state’s No. 2-ranked Division II basketball team, combined for 21 points and nine assists as Lex turned a tight game late in the third quarter into a runaway 74-50 victory over Ashland.
The 17-1 Minutemen improved to 11-0 in the Ohio Cardinal Conference and are one win away from clinching at least a share of their second straight league crown.
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Husty and Legron made their biggest impact in the second half. Husty scored six straight points for Lex in the third quarter and Legron had six straight points of his own in the fourth as Lex was able to turn a 45-40 lead into a somewhat misleading rout.
“You have to know your own role, what you’re expected to do,” said Husty, one of four Minutemen in double figures with 12 points, to go along with a team-high six assists. “The juniors, even though there are only two of us, are supposed to help lead the younger players. That’s our role, along with playing defense and shooting threes.”
Husty’s only 3-pointer came after Ashland (6-10, 3-7) had closed within 39-35 in the third quarter. He followed up with a basket in transition after a blocked shot by 6-8 senior Elijah Hudson at the other end and tacked on a free throw to give Lex a little breathing room.
“Any chance I have, I want to give the team a spark,” Husty said. “I think I can score quick, so in one quarter I can get a lot done.”
Ashland got it back to 45-40 with 2:50 left in the third quarter, but the Minutemen scored seven unanswered points and led by double digits the rest of the way.
Legron made sure of it by doing what he does — popping off the bench to torment the other team with instant offense. His six points in the fourth quarter were part of an 8-2 run at the outset of the period that doused any thoughts of an Ashland comeback. He finished with nine points and three assists.
“Legs (Legron) was aggressive, kept attacking,” coach Scott Hamilton said. “Husty helped us out a lot with his ballhandling. Those guys, with Legs coming off the bench with the twins (Dantrell and Latrell Hughes), are a huge factor for us.”
Lex’s junior class is only slightly bigger than its senior class of one — Hudson. And he repped his class just as well as the juniors, scoring 15 points, grabbing seven rebounds, rejecting four shots and altering several others. He put the exclamation point on this victory with a fadeaway 3-pointer and slam dunk.
Hudson emphatically put an end to Lex’s o-fer in the rim-rattling department. The Minutemen had missed their other three dunk attempts in the game.
What they did right was collect 23 assists and force 24 turnovers, out-scoring Ashland 27-17 on takeaways.
“That was the difference in the game,” Arrows coach Jason Hess said. “Lexington, as talented as they are, didn’t do a lot in the halfcourt. It was the run-outs (transition hoops off turnovers), and you can’t defend run-outs.
“That’s where we have to grow up a little bit. We have two sophomore guards out there and they’ve got to figure out how to handle the ball against pressure. And, unfortunately, we aren’t blessed with big guards, so it’s a lot harder to see around (defenders) and make passes when you’re on the smaller size. But as far as effort, I’m super proud of the way we competed.”
Ashland lost to Lex by 34 the first time around and fell into a 10-0 hole in this one, but clawed back into contention on triples by sophomore guards Paxon Ediger and Reed Emmons around a conventional 3-point play by 6-5 soph Nathan Bernhard, who beat a triple-team in the paint for his and-one.
It was 16-13 after one and Ashland was within 24-22 in the second quarter before four Lex players figured in an 11-0 run to make it look like it was over at halftime.
Far from it.
Even though Lex seemingly had Ashland’s number this season from the way this game started and the first meeting ended, this was not the time for the Minutemen to lose focus.
Ashland was coming off its best game of the season, a 23-point win on Tuesday over 10-6 New Philadelphia.
“We were going rogue in a lot of things,” Hamilton said. “I told the guys at halftime that those guys are good 3-point shooters. If we let them gain confidence, we’re going to be in a dogfight.
“We locked in at the end, but in the middle (of the game) it was a battle. Give (the Arrows) credit, they battled for 32 minutes.”
Ediger tied Lex’s Brayden Fogle for game scoring honors with 17 points, but scored only five after halftime. Sophomore Gabe Baith and junior Tyler Sauder had 10 apiece for Ashland, while Joe Caudill — one of five sophs in Lex’s eight-man rotation — had 12 points for the Minutemen.
Sophomore Seven Allen, saddled with foul trouble, only had two of Lex’s 23 assists, but Husty (six), Fogle (five), Legron (three) and Latrell Hughes (three) handled distribution well. Fogle also had eight rebounds, which was big because the Arrows surprisingly battled Lex to a draw on the boards.
Tuesday was the fourth time Ashland held an opponent under 40 points, three of those defensive gems ending in victory. The Arrows knew that wasn’t a realistic defensive goal against a team with Lex’s firepower, but…
“I kind of think 60 might have been the number,” Hess said. “I feel like if we can set up and play halfcourt defense, they have not had to play against halfcourt defense much this year. Who knows how they would have reacted to that? But they had so much success in transition, unfortunately, with 24 our turnovers, we weren’t able to keep them out of that.
“I thought we played hard, but I think we ran out of gas a little bit. Their size and athleticism wears on you and, unfortunately, we didn’t close out the third quarter the way we wanted and it snowballed there and got away from us.”
