Staff report
All-time Shelby County scoring leader Nathan Lessing wasted no time in showing Lehman his basketball talents Saturday night, scoring 12 first-quarter points.
He went on to finish with 26 in three quarters to lead the Jets to a 73-46 victory over the Cavaliers in the regular-season finale for both squads at Lehman.
The Jets take the county’s best record into postseason play at 19-3, and they open sectional action Friday at Piqua against Bradford.
Lehman was hoping to finish at .500, but instead is 10-12 going into sectional play Saturday at Piqua against Triad.
Lessing’s early scoring led the Jets to a 24-11 bulge after one, and they stretched it to 43-19 at the half.
“Lessing is just that good,” said Lehman coach Tim Gleason. “We got off to a bad start. I know if we wanted to play with them we were going to have to be darn-near perfect, or at least pretty good. And we couldn’t convert our shots. We got decent shots, but just didn’t make them. And when they hit their shots, it got away from us. But the kids gave a great effort from beginning to end.”
Lessing was 6-for-6 from the line, and Fairlawn also got 11 from Josh Reck and 1o each from Kody Curtner and Nick Brautigam. Jared Rourke had 14 and Dylan Arnold 10 for the Cavaliers.
Fairlawn (73) — Graves 1, Lessing 26, Reck 11, Maddy 2, N. Brautigam 10, Johnson 7, Couchot 2, Hickman 2, D. Brautigam 2.
Lehman (46) — Gilardi 3, Magoteaux 2, Sargent 2, Rourke 14, Kennedy 4, Arnold 10, Lee 9, Cianciolo 2.
Score by quarters:
Fairlawn`24`43`59`73
Lehman`11`19`30`46
Three-pointers: Fairlawn 3 (Curtner 2, Johnson); Lehman 3 (Rourke 2, Lee).
Records: Fairlawn 19-3, Lehman 10-12.
——
JC 63, Riverside 40
JACKSON CENTER — The Jackson Center Tigers, and especially senior Brady Wildermuth, had quite the weekend in high school basketball action.
After a 62-40 win over Houston on Friday, they came back and whipped Riverside 63-40 on Saturday to finish regular-season play with a 15-6 mark and five consecutive victories. They will now face Mississinawa Friday in Division 4 Sectional play at Piqua.
Riverside ends the regular campaign at 7-15 and faces Fort Loramie Saturday in the sectional.
Wildermuth followed up his 30-point performance on Friday night with 31 on Saturday to up his season average to 21.2 points per game.
And the really amazing thing is that in the two games, the 6-foot-6 senior took 29 shots in all, and hit 25 of them. That’s 86 percent shooting.
“Brady was outstanding this weekend, and it was a good weekend for us,” said JC coach Scott Elchert. “We got two good wins and now we get ready for the tournament.”
In addition for the Tigers, freshman Calvin Winner had a double-double, with 12 points and 10 rebounds. Bryce Sosby added 10 points.
Riverside got 11 points from Kyle Knight and 1o from Tyler Sanford.
Riverside shot well from the field, 47 percent, but Jackson limited the Pirates to just 30 attempts the entire night.
Riverside (40) — Sanford 10, Helmlinger 4, Knight 11, Auflick 6, Barhorst 3, Willoby 2, Kreglow 2, Stotler 2.
Jackson Center (63) — Booser 2, Elchert 3, Sosby 10, Bunke 5, Wilodermuth 31, Winner 12.
Score by quarters:
Riverside`8`19`27`40
Jackson`11`29`53`63
Three-pointers: Riverside 5 (Auflick 2, Sanford, Knight, Barhorst); JC 5 (Sosby 2, Winner 2, Elchert).
Records: Riverside 7-15, JC 15-6.
Reserve score: JC 41, Riverside 30.
——
Marion Local 50, Russia 43
RUSSIA — The Russia Raiders will head into tournament play this week off a rare loss after they were upset by the Marion Local Flyers in non-league action Saturday night at Russia.
The loss gave the Raiders a final regular-season record of 16-5 heading into tournament action Saturday at Piqua against Mechanicsburg. Four of those losses came to Midwest Athletic Conference schools, including Marion Local.
The Flyers are now 13-8 and conclude regular-season play Saturday at Coldwater.
The third quarter was the key. Marion led 25-24 at the half, but outscored the Raiders 16-8 in the third quarter to take control of the game.
Tyler Mescher was the difference, pouring in 20 for the Flyers, including nine in the key third period. Nathan Bruns added 11.
Russia was led by Cole Tebbe with nine.
Marion Local (50) — Bruns 11, Everman 4, Kahlig 3, Thobe 2, Rethman 5, Koenig 2, Prenger 3.
Russia (43) — Cordonnier 3, Sherman 6, Cook 3, Monnier 8, Poling 4, Cohee 2, Tebbe 9, Kearns 8.
Score by quarters:
Marion`16`25`41`50
Russia`14`24`32`43
Three-pointers: Marion 3 (Kahlig, Rethman, Prenger); Russia 4 (Monnier 2, Cook, Sherman).
Records: Russia 16-5, Marion 13-8.
——
Anna 74, Covington 42
ANNA — The Anna Rockets finished regular-season play in a good way, blasting Covington in non-league action at home Saturday night, 74-42.
The win gave Anna a 13-9 mark heading into Division 3 Sectional action Saturday at Vandalia against Carlisle.
After leading just 16-14 after one, the Rockets used two strong quarters in a row to put it away. Over the next two frames, they allowed the Buccaneers just 10 points to open up a 52-24 bulge with one quarter to play.
“We played good, solid defense after the first quarter,” said Anna coach Nate barhorst. “And we got some transition baskets that really got us going. We played very well together. They played zone and we made that extra pass and got the ball down low.”
Anna had four players in double figures, three of them with 12 points, including Nathan Frilling, Griffin Doseck and Mason Platfoot. Austin Fogt added 10 points.
Doseck had nine rebounds to just miss a double-double, and Drew Schmitz dished out five assists.
Covington (42) — Murphy 5, Pond 6, Wiggins 2, Parrett 4, T. Miller 10, Blei 4, Atkinson 4, Lefeld 2, Sowers 5.
Anna (74) — Frilling 12, Bensman 9, Bixler 4, Huelskamp 2, Doseck 12, Platfoot 12, Cathcart 3, Fogt 10, Hoehne 4, Osborne 4, Schmitz 2.
Score by quarters:
Covington 14 18 24 42
Anna 16 30 52 74
Three-pointers: Anna 7 (Platfoot 4, Frilling 2, Cathcart); Covington 3 (Murphy, Miller, Sowers).
Records: Anna 13-9, Covington 11-11.
——
Lima Perry 91, Botkins 50
CRIDERSVILLE — The Botkins Trojans ran into one of the top small-school teams in Ohio Saturday night and came out on the losing end of a 91-50 score.
The Trojans finish the regular season with an 8-14 record and will be off until Feb. 28, when they play the Fairlawn-Bradford winner in sectional tournament play at Piqua.
Perry rolled to a 22-3 lead after one quarter and even though the Trojans had a strong second quarter, with 21 points, the score was still doubled at the half at 48-24. Perry then exploded for 32 points in the third quarter.
Luke Bergman had 13 points in the second quarter and went on to finish with 29 for the Trojans. Spencer Heuker added 14.
Botkins (50) — Heuker 14, Metz 2, L. Bergman 29, A. Bergman 3, Zimpfer 2, Butcher 1.
Perry (91) — Gardner 4, Monford 14, Drey 8, Whiteside 2, Hoersten 3, Cannon 2, Lane-Henry 24, Glover 23, Floyd 4, Nichols 7.
Score by quarters:
Botkins`3`24`35`50
Perry`22`48`80`91
Three-pointers: Botkins 4 (L. Bergman 4); Perry 7 (Monford 2, Drey 2, Lane-Henry 2, Glover).
Records: Botkins 8-14, Perry 17-3.
——
Loramie 37, Tri-Village 32
FORT LORAMIE — Fort Loramie bounced back from a tough loss Friday night to Russia to defeat a good Tri-Village team in non-league action at Loramie, 37-32.
The win gave the Redskins a final regular-season mark of 17-5 and they will take that into tournament play at Piqua Saturday against Riverside.
Tri-Village also concluded regular season play, and takes a 15-7 mark into postseason action.
The Redskins trailed most of the first three quarters and were down two going to the final period. But they held the Patriots to just three points in the fourth quarter to pull out the win. Loramie’s final eight points came at the line.
With Loramie trailing 32-29, Dillon Braun hit a free throw and Berning two more to give the Redskins a lead they would not relinquish. Then with :33 remaining, freshman Nick Brandewie calmly dropped in a pair. After the Redskins forced a turnover, Braun added two more free throws to put it away.
Berning had 13 and was 6-for-8 from the line to lead Loramie.
Tri-Village (32) — Richards 17, Couch 14, Buckley 1.
Loramie (37) — Brandewie 2, Berning 13, Braun 6, Rosengarten 9, A. Siegel 4, T. Siegel 3.
Score by quarters:
T-V`13`21`29`32
FL`9`19`27`37
Three-pointers: FL 4 (Rosengarten 3, Berning); T-V 1 (Richards).
Records: FL 17-5, T-V 15-7.
——
Crestview 60, NK 51
CONVOY — New Knoxville stayed close the entire way but came out on the short end of a 60-51 verdict against Crestview in action Saturday night.
The Rangers fall to 5-16 and will conclude regular-season play on Friday at home against Fort Recovery.
Nathan Tinnerman had 18 to lead Knoxville, and both Nick Topp and Ben Lammers added 14 apiece.
NK (50) — Topp 14, Lammers 14, Lageman 4, Tinnerman 18, Thobe 1.
Crestview (61) — Shorts 11, Kline 7, Stout 6, Schumm 7, Etzler 12, Gibson 5, Schlagbaum 7, Rolston 5.
Score by quarters:
Knoxville`11`24`36`51
Crestview`17`32`43`60
Three-pointers: NK 7 (Lammers 4, Topp, Lageman, Tinnerman); Crestview 2 (Shorts, Schlagbaum).
Records: NK 5-16, Crestview 14-6.
