Staff report

Fairlawn senior Nathan Lessing dropped in a free throw with 20 seconds remaining in the first half Friday night at Fairlawn against Houston, and it made him the school’s all-time leading scorer in boys basketball.

Now he takes aim at the all-time County scoring record held by former Fort Loramie great Tom Brandewie.

Lessing needed 14 points Friday night to catch former Jet great Andy Francis, who was in attendance at the game and presented Lessing with the game ball.

Lessing went on to score 28 points to push his career total to 1,671. That is just 161 points off the record of 1,834 set by Brandewie, and Lessing’s 28 points Friday was right on his area-leading average for the season.

Like Brandewie, Lessing saw a lot of action as a freshman, scoring 376 points. He followed that up with 490 as a sophomore, then last season poured in 665 points to set a new single-season record at Fairlawn.

He had games of 41, 38, 37, 34 twice and 33 twice last season, and he has now played in 75 games for the Jets. In all those games, he has failed to score in double figures only nine times, six his freshman year and three his sophomore season.

He averaged 16.3 per game as a freshman, 21.0 as a sophomore and 27.7 last season.

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Hardin Nor. 54, Lehman 49

DOLA — The odds were stacked against the young Lehman Cavaliers Friday night in their Northwest Central Conference meeting with Hardin Northern on the road.

Despite that, and a lot of missed opportunities, the Cavs still battled and came up just five-point losers.

The loss left them at 0-2 on the season, and their Saturday game with Springfield Catholic was postponed because of the weather. They will return to action Wednesday night at home against the Minster Wildcats.

Lehman went into the game without 6-foot-4 sophomore center Seth Sargent, who was forced to sit out Friday’s game after sustaining a concussion in practice. He would not have been available Saturday night either.

In addition, the Cavs got Dylan Arnold back from an injury, but he was unable to go because of sickness.

“It was not a good night,” said Lehman coach Tim Gleason. “We didn’t play well at either end of the floor, so I was disappointed in our play. With Seth out, we had to move Kam Lee inside, but he got in early foul trouble. He picked up two fouls in the first three minutes of the game and sat out the rest of the half, then picked up two more quick fouls in the second half.”

Junior Preston Rodgers tried to pick up the slack, and did a good job of it, finishing with 18 points. Lee managed nine in his limited play, and Gleason was pleased with the contributions of a pair of sophomores in Jared Magoteaux and Bryce Kennedy. They chipped in eight points apiece.

“We missed a ton of layups, and some of them were uncontested,” Gleason said. “So we have a lot of work to do, and getting healthy will certainly help that process.”

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Minster 56, Coldwater 51

COLDWATER — The Minster Wildcats and new head coach Mike McClurg finally got their season started after an extended football campaign, and it proved to be a successful opening night.

The Wildcats took a five-point win at Coldwater, which was also opening the season after an extended football run.

The Wildcats will be back in action Wednesday night at Lehman in their next outing.

The third quarter was the key Friday. Minster was down by three after one and two at the half, but outscored Coldwater 15-6 in the third quarter.

Mike Ketner led a balanced Minster with 17 points. Bryce Schmiesing added 10 points and both Aaron Ernst and Jarod Schulze had nine apiece.

Ketner had an amazing shooting night, hitting five three-pointers in five attempts. His only miss came from inside the arc, and he was also 2-for-2 from the line.

Jared Huelsman handed out five assists and Schulze led the Wildcats with six rebounds.

Minster was scheduled to play Wapakoneta Saturday night, but the game was postponed to tonight at Minster.

Coldwater (51) — Bruns 19, Broering 12, Thobe 8, Grunden 2, Frilling 5, Wenning 5.

Minster (56) — Lehmkuhl 2, Schmiesing 10, Ketner 17, Broering 2, Huelsman 4, Ernst 9, Schulze 9, Dorsten 3.

Score by quarters:

Minster`13`29`44`45

Coldwater`15`31`37`51

Three-pointers: Minster 6 (Ketner 5, Ernst); Coldwater 9 (Broering 3, Bruns 2, Thobe 2, Frilling, Wenning).

Records: Minster 1-0, Coldwater 0-1.

Reserve score: Minster 58, Coldwater 50.

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Versailles 78, Bremen 48

VERSAILLES — The Versailles Tigers rolled to their fifth straight win Friday night, downing the New Bremen Cardinals 78-48 in Midwest Athletic Conference play.

The win put Versailles at 2-0 in the league and 5-0 overall with Dunbar coming to town Thursday night in non-league play.

Bremen drops to 0-1 in the league and 0-4 overall and plays at Anna Tuesday night.

The Cardinals were supposed to play Saturday at home against Fort Loramie, but the game was postponed because of the weather.

Versailles jumped out to a 23-13 lead after a quarter and made it 32-26 at the half. The Tigers then outscored the Cardinals 21-8 in the third quarter to put it away.

The Tigers had three players in double figures, led by Ohio State signee Justin Ahrens with 19, eight of those coming in the opening quarter.

Keaton McEldowney added 13, AJ Ahrens 12 and Alex Wendel 10.

For New Bremen, Nolan Bornhorst had 16 and Brandon Heitkamp 10.

NB (48) — Powers 8, Clem 4, Paul 3, Bornhorst 16, Vonderhaar 6 Messick 1, Heitkamp 10.

Versailles (78) — Knapke 10, McEldowney 13, Jones 5, Wendel 10, J. Ahrens 19, Niekamp 6, Custenborder 5, A.J. Ahrens 12.

Score by quarters:

NB`13`26`34`48

Versailles`23`43`64`78

Three-pointers: Bremen 7 (Bornhorst 4, Powers 2, Paul); Versailles 6 (J. Ahrens 2, Knapke, McEldowney, Jones, Custenborder).

Records: Versailles 5-0, NB 0-4.

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Lima Temple 66, Riverside 48

LIMA — Lima Temple outscored Riverside 40-17 in the second half to come from behind and win 66-48 in Northwest Central Conference play Friday night at Lima Temple.

The loss left the Pirates 0-1 in the league and 1-5 overall. They are off until Dec. 27 at Graham.

Riverside had a good second quarter, outscoring Temple 20-12 to take a 31-26 lead at the half. But the second half was all Lima Temple.

“We got off to a great start,” said Riverside coach Seth Bodenmiller. “We executed well on both ends of the floor. We went into halftime with a small lead, but then came out in the third quarter and went almost six minutes without scoring. You have to give Temple a lot of credit. They made a lot of big 3’s at key moments and knocked down almost all their free throws down the stretch.”

The Pirates got 18 points from Trey Helmlinger and 11 from Hank Harshbarger.

The Riverside junior varsity won 27-23, with Wyatt Auflick scoring 12.