Lima Senior was ready for the second half in its 82-77 boys basketball win over Toledo Rogers on Saturday night and Keaton Upshaw appears ready for the second half of the season.
Those were two of the big things that came out of the Spartans’ non-league win at Lima Senior.
Jarius Ward, who is averaging 24.3 points a game, had another huge night for the Spartans with 29 points. B.J. Miller scored in double figures in back to back weekend games when he got 18 points.
But the thing that might be causing some revisions on opponents’ scouting reports the rest of the season is that Upshaw, a 6-foot, 8-inch junior post player, appears healthier than he has been this season.
He had 12 points and nine rebounds Saturday night after scoring nine points in a win over Toledo Central Catholic on Friday night after dealing with a high ankle sprain most of the season.
With an active Upshaw and Jaleel King (8 points, 9 rebounds), the Spartans had an inside presence that was lacking in some earlier games. They led Lima Senior to a 31-21 rebounding advantage.
“I told him, ‘Keaton, welcome back. You had really good back-to-back games,’ ” said Lima Senior assistant coach Brock Howe, standing in for head coach Quincey Simpson for the second night in a row while Simpson attended an out-of-state funeral.
“I think as time goes on, the healthier he’s going to get,” Howe said.
Upshaw said, “I feel a lot better. I should be averaging what I did tonight every game. It should be like that every game.”
Lima Senior (11-6) fell behind by as many as six points in the second quarter when Toledo Rogers shot 63 percent (17 of 27) and made six 3-pointers, four of them by Vonte Middleton, who finished with 23 points.
A tip-in by Upshaw just before the buzzer gave Lima Senior a 42-41 halftime lead and the Spartans went up by as many as six points twice in the third quarter.
Rogers responded, though, and took a 62-61 lead after three quarters. The Spartans got the lead for good in the first minute of the fourth quarter, though, on another tip-in by Upshaw and a 3-pointer by Ward.
“We were able to close out (defensively) on the shooters a little better. No. 32 (Middleton) was really shooting the thing,” Howe said. “We had it on the scouting report that he will only shoot threes. He was unconscious. The second half we really were keying on him.
“We used different guys on him. We told the guys if your guy scores, you ought to be mad. I think the guys took that to heart and were able to fight through it,” he said. “And I told them we weren’t playing fast enough in the first half. We wanted to make it a track meet and make those guys run with us.”
Upshaw said, “We came out with a lot of energy. We had to stop No. 32. And when we stopped him, that’s what got us going.”
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