LIMA – For a half, visiting Fremont Ross forced Lima Senior to play a little slower tempo than it would have liked.
Then it happened.
After slipping into the locker room at halftime with a slim 35-30 lead over Fremont Ross, Lima Senior then sped up the game dramatically at both ends of the court after the break, and pulled away from the Little Giants for a convincing 77-46 Three Rivers Athletic Conference boys basketball victory Tuesday night.
Lima Senior (5-2, 2-1 TRAC) outscored Fremont Ross 29-6 in the third quarter, and never let up.
For the game, Jarius Ward led Lima Senior with 23 points, seven rebounds and two steals. Marquis Coleman poured in 21 points and ripped down eight rebounds. Jaleel Long scored seven points, dished out four assists and had four steals. Jaleel King scored seven points, pulled down six rebounds and had two blocks. Corey Clair added seven points, five rebounds and four steals for the Spartans.
Lima Senior’s defensive pressure helped cause 26 Fremont Ross turnovers (17 in the second half). The Spartans turned the ball over 18 times.
“We’ve got to play fast,” Lima Senior coach Quincey Simpson said. “We’re small. We have to execute our strengths at both ends of the court. I don’t think we gave good effort in the first half. We allowed those guys to get open looks. Our continuity wasn’t clicking in the first half at both ends.
“We went into halftime and drew things up on the board, so they could see what was what. I thought we came out in the second half with a different mindset, and had the foot on the gas. We played with our hands and got some deflections in the passing lanes. We were able to get out into transition. We pushed the ball ahead and did some good things. Fortunately, it worked for us.”
In the third quarter, the Spartans scored in transition often, and made it to the free throw line on many of those fast breaks. Lima Senior was 10-of-15 shooting from the charity stripe in the third stanza.
On the night, Lima Senior made 20-of-30 from the charity stripe. Fremont Ross was 13-of-14 from the line.
The Spartans shot 50 percent from the field, while the Little Giants (2-6, 0-3 TRAC) struggled, hitting just 27 percent of their field goal attempts (4-of-22 shooting in the second half).
The Spartans dominated the boards, 40-27.
Maliek Johnson (12 points) was the lone Little Giant to score in double figures.
“With a very inexperienced team that we have, unfortunately, one mistake can turn into one, two, three or four really quick,” Fremont Ross coach Mark Gedeon said. “We’re not obviously talented enough to overcome something like that.
“But, I was very pleased at how we played in the first half, in terms of trying to compete at that level. Our players try to do what we ask them to do. But, I think their inexperience really showed.”
Simpson was pleased at how other players stepped up Tuesday night, especially Coleman, a 6-foot, 2-inch senior guard.
“I’ve been challenging him to do other things besides living and dying with the jump shot. He has a lot of dynamics to his game that he doesn’t always demonstrate, so he’s cheating himself. Tonight, he played downhill and that’s what we like,” Simpson said.
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