First Posted: 3/6/2015
OTSEGO — For the first two quarters of Lima Senior’s 54-42 win over Fremont Ross in its Division I boys basketball sectional opener on Friday night at Otsego High School, the Little Giants found their comfort level.
But in the last two quarters the Spartans introduced them to their discomfort level and pulled away for the win.
Lima Senior (20-3) will play Findlay, a 45-34 winner over Mansfield Madison, on Thursday night at Liberty-Benton in its next tournament game. But it didn’t get there without a bit of a struggle.
Fremont Ross (8-16) surprised the crowd, and maybe itself, by taking a 24-22 halftime lead over the Spartans, a team who had beaten them by 12 points in December and 22 points in February.
But Lima Senior dominated the final two quarters to turn the result into something similar to the first two times the two teams played.
The Spartans went out to a 16-11 lead after one quarter but played probably their worst quarter of the season in the second quarter when they hit only 1 of 12 shots and their only field goal came on a steal by Xavier Simpson.
“We were getting good looks and they weren’t falling. I thought our confidence went south a bit. I think guys were playing not to make mistakes,” Lima Senior coach Quincey Simpson said.
“Obviously, the game plan was to take away the middle and make us win by the jump shot. They did that. Late in the game we were able to make a couple shots, make a couple plays, get some defensive stops and I think that was the game.
“I thought that this was probably one of our worst games. We didn’t make shots, things weren’t going our way. But instead of hanging our heads we came in at halftime and stayed positive and we were able to make some plays in the third quarter,” he said.
One of the things Lima Senior did was speed up the tempo of the game to something it was comfortable with and Fremont Ross wasn’t nearly as at ease with.
“We just wanted to get out in transition, we wanted to get the ball out as quick as we could and take the high percentage shot,” Simpson said.
Fremont Ross coach Mark Gedeon said, “Assertive was how we played that second quarter. We did not play as assertively in the second half.
“A lot of it (in the second quarter) was attributable to our defense. I was very pleased with how we played defense. Lima Senior is a team that can score in bunches. We at least limited them more than we did the first two times,” he said.
Xavier Simpson led Lima Senior with 14 points and Rico Stafford had 13 points — 12 of them in the last two quarters. Marquevious Wilson scored 12 points.
Starting guard Elijah Pughsley did not dress for the game after being ill with the flu most of the week.
“He probably could have played tonight. Coach’s decision. He’s kind of sick. I thought resting him was the best thing,” Simpson said.
Lima Senior shot 41 percent for the game (18 of 41), including 10 of 16 in the second half. Ross shot 29 percent (12 of 42), including 5 of 23 in the second half.
“You give them an inch and they take advantage of it,” Gedeon said. “They definitely put us on our heels (in the second half). They were playing aggressively and playing good position defense.”
