First Posted: 1/24/2015
LIMA – Basketball is a game of runs.
For Lima Senior, a team that played its fourth game in five days Saturday night, still had some runs left in its storage box.
Lima Senior’s fast start on Saturday helped set the tone as the Spartans held off visiting Ottawa-Glandorf for a hard-fought 60-57 nonconference boys basketball victory.
Lima Senior (9-2) jumped out to an 18-7 lead by the end of the first quarter and never looked back.
The Spartans led by as many as 13 points. The Titans did cut the deficit to two points on three different occasions.
However, Lima Senior came up with key shots down the stretch to pull out the victory.
With the win over O-G (9-4), Lima Senior has now reeled off nine straight victories, since starting the season 0-2.
Against O-G, Xavier Simpson led Lima Senior with 15 points, six assists and two steals. Elijah Pughsley scored 12 points, including two 3-pointers. Rico Stafford added 14 points, four rebounds, two blocks and two steals for the Spartans.
“We came out super-energized,” Lima Senior coach Quincey Simpson said. “That’s exactly the way we wanted to start the game. We came out high. Obviously, the game of basketball is a game of runs. So, I knew O-G would make a run. I didn’t know when or how, but I knew they would make a run, and they did. We didn’t have a good second quarter and they went to a zone and it gave us a little bit of a problem.”
After getting down 18-7 by the first stop, O-G cut it to 27-22 by the break.
By the end of the third quarter, the Titans trailed 44-40.
Noah Bramlage, a 6-foot-7 forward, led O-G with 23 points and six boards. Teammate Brad Recker scored 15 points.
“We battled back,” O-G coach Tyson McGlaughlin said. “We stuck to the game plan. Our guys played extremely hard. They (Lima Senior) hit some big shots. Give them credit. They’re a really good team. It’s nothing for us to hang our heads on. We told our guys that if we can play with that kind of effort and that kind of intensity the rest of the way, then we’re going to be a tough team to beat.”
The Titans had their chances in the fourth quarter.
The Princeton-bound Bramlage, who injured his finger during Saturday’s action, made 4-of-8 from the free throw line in the fourth quarter.
“Noah (Bramlage) is an 80-percent free throw shooter,” McGlaughlin said. “He just had one of those nights. He ripped his whole fingernail off; it was nasty looking. But, it’s not an excuse. He normally makes them.”
For the game, Lima Senior shot 52 percent from the field. O-G countered with 44-percent shooting.
“Coming out of halftime, we made some adjustments,” Coach Simpson said. “We put some guys in different positions, and we attacked them as well. At the end of the day, we had to get stops. It was tough sometimes.”
