First Posted: 3/21/2015
TOLEDO — For a little more than three quarters, Lima Senior stood toe-to-toe with the champ.
For around three minutes, Lakewood St. Edward showed why it will defend that championship in the coming week.
Six-foot-7 senior forward Kipper Nichols took over in the meat of the fourth quarter to help the Eagles stop Lima Senior’s postseason run 50-42 in a Division I regional final at the University of Toledo on Saturday.
St. Edward (21-5) will play Huber Heights Wayne at 8:30 p.m. Friday in the state semifinals at the Schottenstein Center. Huber Heights beat Springfield 67-60 on Saturday.
While St. Edward was looking to get back to state to defend last year’s title, Lima Senior was trying to get back to state for the first time since 1992. Its last regional final appearance was 2001 when the Spartans fell to Cleveland St. Ignatius 71-57.
“We had big plans, we wanted to be in Columbus next week,” Lima Senior coach Quincey Simpson said. “Obviously, we had a pretty good season but I feel bad for the seniors, they gave it their all.”
St. Edward featured a major size advantage highlighted by Nichols and 6-9 junior center Derek Funderburk. Despite that, Lima Senior battled for a 36-34 lead with 6:11 left in the game.
At that point, however, Nichols took over and scored on four straight possessions for nine of his 11 points in the quarter as St. Edward claimed a 47-38 lead with 1:44 remaining.
During that critical stretch, Lima Senior made just 1-of-5 field goals and missed three free throws.
“There were three things really (in the fourth),” St. Edward coach Eric Flannery said. “They started to wear down, and you could see that in some of their jump shots. Two, we went to our match-up zone, which forced them to kind of become stagnant. And three, Kipper Nichols in transition was unstoppable.”
Nichols finished with a game-high 22 points, making 6-of-8 from the field and 10-of-12 from the line. He also pulled down a game-high nine boards.
“He’s a big-time player and that’s what they do in those situations, they took advantage,” Simpson said. “The size gave us a little bit more problems than we had anticipated. They rebounded well, we didn’t capitalize on our opportunities. We didn’t get many opportunities.
“Their size is amazing and that’s the game.”
Still, St. Edward only won the rebounding battle 29-27 but the advantage showed up big in the shooting stats. While the Eagles were regularly shooting layups and short-range jumpers, Lima Senior was trying to hit 3s and high, arcing shots over the massive post defense.
For the game, Lima Senior made 16-of-51 field goals (31.4 percent) and only 3-of-17 3-pointers (17.6 percent), missing all eight treys in the second half. St. Edward made 18-of-31 field goals (58.1 percent) and only tried four 3s, which it missed.
Still, Lima Senior’s pressure defense and opportunistic scoring kept them in most of the way. The Spartans finished with six fast break points and 10 points off St. Edward’s 10 turnovers.
“Lima Senior had an unbelievable game plan,” Flannery said. “They were very physical. They were pushing us out in the post so they were not letting us take advantage with our size. They were pressuring our guards up top and you saw them really getting after it, they weren’t letting anything easy happen for us.
“They controlled the tempo of the game for 90 percent of the game. We just happened to play great for about three minutes, and that was the difference.”
Michael Ryan had 12 points for St. Edward while Funderburk finished with 10 points.
Elijah Pughsley was Lima Senior’s lone double-digit scorer with 11 points, Rico Stafford and Xavier Simpson finished with eight points apiece. Simpson chipped in with five assists.
“You got two tough teams battling,” Quincey Simpson said. “Somebody had to lose, somebody had to win. The season was great. Unfortunately, we came up short.”
