Lima Senior’s Amari Addy defends against Findlay’s Sam Ernst during Friday night’s game at Lima Senior. See more high school basketball photos at LimaScores.com.
Richard Parrish | The Lima News
LIMA — Findlay weathered the storm early and found smooth sailing in the second half on its way to a 47-36 boys basketball win at Lima Senior on Friday night.
The Trojans (10-3, 6-1 Three Rivers Athletic Conference) fell behind very early, led 23-20 at halftime and were in control most of the second half as Lima Senior dropped to 5-4 overall and 3-4 in the TRAC.
Will Cordonnier scored 16 points and had six rebounds and Ryan Montgomery scored 11 points and pulled down 10 rebounds to lead Findlay. After going scoreless in the first half, Jake Bishop had nine points in the second half. Ja’Kel Cotton’s nine points led Lima Senior.
Lima Senior forced five turnovers in the opening minutes of the game and jumped out to a quick 9-3 lead. But the Spartans’ defensive pressure produced only six more turnovers over the last 3 ½ quarters and their halfcourt offense was anemic.
“We called timeout when we were down 9-3 and were pretty calm. We had to just keep sticking with it,” Findlay coach Jim Rucki said. “They come after you hard and we for the most part handled it really well.
“Ryan Montgomery played great, he’s been playing really well but hasn’t been scoring. Tonight he added that and we needed it. Sam Ernst hit a couple of threes. He’s one of our best shooters but just hasn’t hit shots. He made a couple big ones early. Will did a good job around the basket. He’s tough to handle,” he said.
Findlay’s win broke a streak of six straight Lima Senior wins over the Trojans. The Spartans were held below 40 points for the second time in 11 days.
Lima Senior shot 32 percent on field goals (15 of 47) and connected on 30 percent of its shots in the second half.
Findlay shot 46 percent (18 of 39) and had a 25-21 rebounding edge. Lima Senior had 11 turnovers.
Findlay increased its three-point halftime lead to 11 points, 35-24, after three quarters and was up by as many as 15 points during the fourth quarter and never let its lead dip below 11 points in the fourth quarter.
Lima Senior and Findlay played for the 79th time. Lima Senior had won 48 of those games coming into Friday night’s game.
Lima Senior’s biggest lead in the first half was six points, when it jumped out to a 9-3 lead at the beginning of the game. Findlay’s biggest lead in the opening half was five points, twice in the second quarter at 21-16 and 23-18.
Lima Senior shot 33 percent on field goals (9 of 27) in the first half and Findlay connected on 43 percent of its shots (9 of 21). Cordonnier had 10 of his points in the first half.
Findlay had a 14-10 rebounding edge. The Trojans turned the ball over seven times and Lima Senior had two turnovers.
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Reach Jim Naveau at 567-242-0414.
