Lima Central Catholic’s Christian Marks attempts to get the ball away from Celina’s Grant Duncan during Saturday night’s game at LCC. See more high school basketball photos at LimaScores.com.
Don Speck | The Lima News
Three of these things are alike. One is not.
That’s the short version of how Lima Central Catholic beat Celina 62-40 in boys basketball on Saturday at LCC.
After struggling for three quarters against a team which has won only three games and entered the day on a six-game losing streak, the Thunderbirds erupted for 29 points in the fourth quarter to make it look easier than it really was.
A two-point lead, at 33-31, after three quarters grew to 12 points, 43-31, in the first three minutes of the fourth quarter when LCC hit its first four shots, including a pair of 3-pointers, and Celina missed its first four.
And the Thunderbirds (7-11) continued to expand the lead until the end of the game by hitting 11 of 13 on field goal attempts in the final quarter.
“In the game of basketball you have to be able to play four quarters and we have yet to play four quarters,” LCC coach Frank Kill said. “But I think we’re turning in the right direction. Last night (in a 56-51 loss at Ottoville) we played three really good quarters and we were absent in the fourth quarter.
“Tonight, we played mediocre basketball in the first three and played pretty good basketball in the fourth quarter,” he said. “We’re starting to figure some things out.”
Freshman point guard Willie Foster, who did not play Friday night because of illness, led LCC with 16 points. Carson Parker had 13 points and 7 rebounds.
“I thought Willie had, not really a breakout game, but a rebound type of game that he hasn’t had in a couple of weeks and it was nice to see that from him,” Kill said.
“We did a good job inside of getting rebounds and being rim protectors. And I think Payne Cutlip turned the intensity up in the fourth quarter, guarding their guards 94 feet and that kind of sped them up and gave us an opportunity to turn it into some transition points.”
Kill said Foster “has been kind of under the weather and hasn’t been feeling the greatest, he missed school on Wednesday and Thursday.
“He needed this. When your point guard’s confidence is down, everybody’s confidence can be down,” he said.
LCC started five seniors – Justin Bauman, Christian Marks, Payne Cutlip, Cole Gross and Sal Guagenti – most of whom haven’t gotten a lot of playing time this season. They played the first four minutes of the game and got back on the court for around the final two minutes of the game.
All five of them broke into the scoring column and Gross had five points.
Grant Duncan and Braylon Gabes both scored 10 points to lead Celina (3-18).
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Reach Jim Naveau at 567-242-0414.
