Lima Senior and Lorain’s boys basketball teams share more than a desire to push the ball up the floor offensively and a defensive approach that makes creating turnovers as a priority.
The Spartans and the Titans both remember last year. And they want to go even farther in the postseason this year.
No. 2-ranked Lima Senior (26-0) and Lorain (21-3) both are returning to the Akron/Toledo Division I regional for the second year in a row. And both had their seasons ended by Lakewood St. Edward’s in the regional last year.
The Spartans came up one game short of getting to the 2015 state tournament when they lost 50-42 to St. Edward’s in the regional championship game after being tied heading into the fourth quarter.
Lorain, which came into last year’s regional undefeated, was beaten 68-60 by St. Edward’s in a regional semifinal.
“We were eight minutes away,” Lima Senior coach Quincey Simpson said after Lima Senior wrapped up an undisputed Three Rivers Athletic Conference championship last month. He said he planned to show tape of the fourth quarter of the St. Edward’s game to the Spartans for inspiration.
The Spartans and Lorain will play at 7 p.m. Wednesday at the University of Toledo in a regional semifinal. Canton McKinley and Brunswick will play at 7 p.m. Thursday at the University of Akron in the other semifinal and the championship game will be at 7 p.m. Saturday at Akron.
Lima Senior’s 34-33 win over Toledo St. John’s in the district championship game and its 54-47 win over Toledo Whitmer in the district semifinals both were close until the final minutes.
At least one Lima Senior player says he thought about the St. Edward’s game when those games got close.
“This is a one-time thing. For the seniors it’s our last time playing together. We want this to be special for each other,” Marquevious Wilson said after Lima Senior’s win over St. John’s.
“We thought about that the last game (against Whitmer), too. It was a close game too. During the game I was having flashbacks of the St. Edward’s game last year. I didn’t want that to happen for me and my seniors.”
Lorain, which averages 81 points a game, probably has a style more in tune with Lima Senior’s preferred style than Whitmer and St. John’s. The Spartans have scored 80 or more points in 11 of their 26 games.
Lorain came into last year’s regional undefeated before losing to St. Edward. The Titans are missing guard Devon Andrews, who signed with Kent State for basketball, and Ohio State football recruit Rashod Berry from that team.
But they still shoot the ball well, hitting 49 percent of their field goals overall and 37 percent from 3-point range.
Naz Bohannon, a 6-5 wing, leads Lorain in scoring at 17.4 points a game and 6-1 guard Daviere Andrews averages 17.1 points a game.
Anfernee Smothers, a 6-7 post player, averages 10.3 points and 6.2 rebounds. Andrews, point guard Kevin Davis and Jamar Ross are the top 3-point shooters on the team.
Bohannon told the Elyria Chronicle Telegram after a 58-40 win over North Ridgeville in a district championship game that the Titans were “extremely hungry, almost a starving sensation.” He said they were “a better team and more prepared to win (than last year).”
Andrews told The Morning Journal of Lorain, “We have something to prove. We’re going to make it out of the Sweet 16. We want to prove we can make it farther.”
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