First Posted: 2/21/2015
LIMA – The predictions were a little off. But Lima Central Catholic was definitely on its game when it beat Celina 60-50 in a match-up of state-ranked boys basketball teams on Saturday night at LCC.
The expectation was that it would be a close game with Celina, ranked No. 8 in Division II, going against LCC, No. 3 in Division III.
But the Thunderbirds started fast, led the entire game and never let their lead drop below 10 points the last 11 minutes of the game.
Josh Dixon scored 16 points, Dantez Walton got 11 points and Jake Williams had nine points and nine rebounds for LCC (19-2).
Ryan Hoyng scored 16 points – 11 of them in the fourth quarter – for Celina (18-3) and Grant Laffin had 10 points.
LCC was in control all night, despite its No. 2 scorer, guard Tre Cobbs, missing most of the first half because of foul trouble and then leaving the game with a shoulder injury a minute and a half into the second half.
Cobbs suffered dislocation of his left shoulder, LCC coach Frank Kill said.
“His dislocation went right back in, so hopefully our trainer, along with our witch doctor, can work some wonders on him and get him back to being healthy and we can get him back by districts,” Kill said.
On senior night, LCC started its four seniors – Aidan O’Connor, Garrett Thomas, Cam White and Williams – along with Cobbs.
That group got things rolling by jumping out to a 10-2 lead in the game’s first 2 ½ minutes. The closest Celina got the rest of the night was when it cut the lead to 24-20 late in the second quarter.
LCC shot the ball well (47 percent), outrebounded the Bulldogs 36-20 and held them to 36 percent shooting.
“Tonight was a great win for us because Celina is a really good team. It’s a good step in the right direction,” Kill said.
“I thought that was probably the best defensive game we could have gotten from everybody. From the seniors starting us off to the regular starters, we really stepped up,” he said.
Celina coach Chris Bihn said, “We talked about being able to control the points in the paint and they came down and made lay-ups right off the bat. We can’t have that. We can talk about that start but all night they got the offensive boards, they got the loose balls. We didn’t go get them.
“That might be the first time we were out-rebounded all year and we were out-rebounded pretty good,” he said.
