BATH TOWNSHIP – Lima Central Catholic’s 77-58 boys basketball win at Bath on Saturday night was played fast, so fast LCC coach Frank Kill said it looked like a track meet at times.
But Dantez Walton was standing still when he made an historic shot.
The 6-foot, 5-inch senior became the sixth LCC boys basketball player to score 1,000 points in his career when he hit the front end of a one-and-one two minutes into the second quarter.
Tre Cobbs scored 26 points and Walton finished with 21 points to lead No.1-ranked LCC (15-0). Josh Dixon had 14 points.
Walton said he’d thought about crossing the 1,000-points milestone with a dunk. But however it came was OK with him.
“Before the game I was planning on a dunk but they put me on the line for a one-and-one. I was still satisfied,” he said.
“It was an accomplishment I wanted but obviously I didn’t know when it was (going to happen). I was worried about getting those wins and getting us back to state. This was a great accomplishment for me but I know I wouldn’t have been able to do this without my teammates and my coach.”
LCC ran out to a 37-21 lead three minutes into the second quarter but saw Bath cut that lead to as few as seven points at 41-34 with a minute to go in the first half.
But after halftime, with possibly a little more focus on defense, the Thunderbirds built the lead to 28 points, 75-47, with 4 ½ minutes left in the game before the starters went to the bench.
“That was a track race. For us to give up 43 points in the first half is just unacceptable. Defensively, we weren’t very good. But our offense was fast, we were quick, we got some easy lay-ups. We just needed to get some stops,” Kill said.
“I thought in the third quarter we came out of the locker room kind of with the mentality of picking things up and just taking pride in who we are. We’re defense first and I thought tonight in the first half defense was second. We weren’t getting any stops,” he said.
“Tre and Dantez did a good job of keeping us in the scoring loops but defensively we’re not as polished as I want us to be after 15 games.”
Bath shot 58 percent on field goals in the first half (14 of 24) but dropped off to 38 percent (8 of 21) in the final two quarters.
Kill said Walton “has put a lot of hard work into his game.”
“It (1,000 points) has always been second in his mind as a goal because he wants to win another state title. He wants to do everything he can to win. I think he is an all-around better player this year. Defensively, he’s everywhere. He’s shooting the ball better and his leadership skills are something where he has really stepped up in terms of being more vocal,” he said.
LCC won the Division III state championship two years ago and was runner-up last season.
Andrew Renner scored 19 points and Chad Frey had 10 points for Bath (6-10).
“We played with them for a long time. I thought for most of the game we played as well as we can play,” Bath coach Shawn Allen said. “We played hard and competed and we fought. We didn’t back down. They’re not No. 1 because they just got lucky. They’re a great basketball team.
“We’re playing pretty well. If we can do some of the things we did tonight, we should be able to do some of those things going forward,” he said.
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