Lima Central Catholic is finding out Rossy Moore needs help.
Despite the Thunderbird senior standout scoring 21 points and grabbing 12 rebounds, LCC fell short to Ashland 57-50 in the Coach Q Holiday Classic Challenge Sunday.
LCC falls to 3-4 on the season and Ashland improves to 8-1.
“He (Moore) is the voice of the T-Birds and the heart right now and where he goes we go and right now he is riding the solo train right now and I need every one to catch up with him,” T-Birds head coach Frank Kill said.
No other Thunderbird scored in double-digits in this game and despite some some flashes of brilliance from some of the supporting cast, it was not enough to get LCC over the hump in a game that they never lead.
It wasn’t until the fourth quarter that the Thunderbirds finally began to put things together. Down its largest deficit of the game, 51-37, going into the final stanza, the Thunderbirds, riding the shoulders of Moore, who notched six of his team-high 21 points in the fourth quarter, scored the first 14-0 points of the period to slice the lead to 51-50.
It appeared LCC had the momentum finally swing in its favor. However, a missed shot, to take the lead coupled with some solid free throw shooting down the stretch by the Arrows allowed Ashland to escape with the win. Ashland, who did not have field goal in the fourth quarter, was 6 of 7 from the free throw line.
Kill admitted his team came out flat in this rare Sunday affair.
“We just weren’t ready to play in the first two and a half three quarters,” Kill said. “Certain guys were just flat and we missed a ton of layups and it could have been a whole different game if you make up your layups and your free throws and we missed a lot of layups.”
In addition to missing easy lay ups, the Thunderbirds were 2 of 17 from behind the 3-point arc.
Kill gave credit to Ashland and how they successfully defended the Thunderbirds and the efforts of Luke Denbow who pumped in a game-high 26 points, including 12 of those in the third quarter that gave the Arrows the 14-point cushion going into the final eight minutes. Teammate Eli White added 18 points for the Arrows.
“They have one stellar guard over there,” Kill said. “He (Denbow) is a phenomenal player. We tried to contain him and he put up 26 points. We knew what his capabilities were and there were a couple of other guys that could hurt but we just didin’t do enough on our end that we could control and we didn’t do it.”
It has been a brutal tough schedule for LCC against teams like Crestview, Kalida, Ottawa-Glandorf and Kill said he hopes his team is learning from these games.
“We play with a lot of emotions and we are getting better,” Kill said. “We played two freshmen and these are stepping stones for the future but right now it is the present and we have to build for today. We can’t control things in the future but right now we can control everything.”
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