First Posted: 2/17/2015
LIMA — Payback, like a pay day, has to be earned.
And Lima Central Catholic earned a 64-48 win and a little payback against Spencerville on the strength of two strong finishes — one at the end of the first half and the other near the end of the game — on Tuesday night at LCC.
Dantez Walton (20 points, 9 rebounds) and Tre Cobbs (18 points) led LCC to its 18th win in 20 games this season.
That victory ended a two-year losing streak against Spencerville, which won on a buzzer beater last year at home after winning at LCC two years ago.
“It was definitely a factor. I felt like we had to get our payback,” Walton said. “I’m glad we got them back this year.”
After LCC jumped out to an early lead, Spencerville battled back to within two points early in the second quarter. But the Thunderbirds finished the first half with an 11-3 run to go up 36-24 after two quarters.
LCC took advantage of some cold shooting by Spencerville (1 of 9 in the third quarter) to push its lead to 40-25. But the Bearcats used the free throw line to reduce the margin to nine points, 42-33, after three quarters.
It was still a seven-point game, 44-37, after Spencerville’s Jacob Meyer hit two free throws with 5:56 to play.
But over the next two minutes, Cobbs and Walton combined for nine unanswered points to put the game out of reach at 53-37. Maybe the biggest shot in that outburst was a 3-pointer by Walton that made it 51-37.
“They did creep up on a little bit. We had to maintain our focus because the crowd was kind of getting into it a little bit. We had to maintain our focus,” Walton said.
LCC coach Frank Kill said, “They made a couple runs at us. I thought our guys really bounced back in the fourth quarter. Tre had a great second half. I thought he and Dantez both put a complete game together at the offensive end.
“In the fourth quarter I thought we stepped up our game and attacked them more (offensively),” Kill said. “Defensively I thought the difference in the second half was we closed out on their shooters because of the way we contested the shots.
“I thought we missed a couple opportunities to blow the doors off but that’s a good Spencerville club,” he said.
Mason Nourse scored 14 points to lead Spencerville (12-5).
LCC shot 53 percent on field goals (27 of 51). Spencerville connected on 35 percent of its shots (13 of 37). LCC had a 28-14 rebounding edge.
