OTTAWA – Minute by minute, possession by possession, turnover by turnover, the pressure that Lima Senior put on Ottawa-Glandorf began to take its toll.
An eight-point halftime lead became 19 points after three quarters and finally turned into a 77-54 boys basketball win for the Spartans in a match-up of state-ranked teams on Saturday night at O-G.
Xavier Simpson scored 31 points to lead the Spartans, ranked No.2 in the state in Division I, to their ninth win without a loss.
Rico Stafford had 12 points, Jaylin Thomas scored 11 and Jarius Ward had 10 points.
Nick Weihrauch scored 14 points for Ottawa-Glandorf (11-3), ranked No. 7 in Division II, and Jordan Verhoff and Jay Kaufman each had 11 points.
The Spartans forced 24 turnovers out of the Titans and hit nine 3-pointers. And they did this without one of their starters, Ruben Flowers, who was on his official football recruiting visit to the University of Pittsburgh, where he has verbally committed.
“He’s a big part of our team but we couldn’t think that Ruben’s not here. We felt like we could do the job without him and we did,” Xavier Simpson said.
Lima Senior coach Quincey Simpson said, “From a defensive standpoint, I liked our full court pressure and I liked our half court pressure at times.
“It was a sold out crowd, it’s always a hostile environment here. Their fans are very supportive of their team. I was happy to have our guys step up to the challenge,” he said.
Flowers is a key part of Lima Senior’s inside game and in his absence Stafford did much of the work in the post.
“I thought Rico Stafford started slow and I chewed him out a little and he played incredible from that point on,” Quincey Simpson said.
“Ruben does a lot of stuff you don’t see on the stat sheet. But we had guys step up and play with great effort,” he said.
Ottawa-Glandorf coach Tyson McGlaughlin said, “They (Lima Senior) are just so athletic, they’ve got good length. They don’t put a ton of pressure on you to get the ball but they just anticipate things so well. And then they hit nine threes. Sometime you just have to tip your cap to the other team.”
Lima Senior led 40-32 at halftime after O-G had jumped out to a 21-17 early in the second quarter when it hit 9 of its first 12 shots in the game.
Turnovers turned the game Lima Senior’s way in the second when it converted six of the Titans’ turnovers into baskets. Also, Lima Senior stopped turning the ball over. After six turnovers of its own in the first eight minutes, it had only two in the second quarter.
Lima Senior regained the lead at 23-21 on a 15-footer by Ward, then used two O-G turnovers in 10 seconds to stretch the lead to 28-21 on a 3-pointer by Thomas and a lay-up by Simpson.
The lead grew to as many as 11 points, at 36-25, before the Titans cut it to eight points at halftime.
Lima Senior’s 23-point win was its biggest margin of victory over Ottawa-Glandorf since 1970.
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