Lima Senior’s Shawn Foster slam dunks against Mansfield during Tuesday’s game at Lima Senior High School.
Richard Parrish | The Lima News
LIMA — If you were just keeping score, there was nothing wrong with Lima Senior’s 79-65 boys basketball win over Mansfield Senior on Tuesday night.
But if you were keeping stats, it might have contained a flaw. At least Lima Senior coach Quincey Simpson found one in the box score.
The Spartans (9-6) dominated on the scoreboard from start to finish, running out to a 50-28 halftime lead on the strength of a 31-point second quarter, and never letting Mansfield Senior get closer than 11 points in the second half.
Freshman guard Shawn Foster played an excellent all-around game when he led the Spartans in scoring with 30 points, led in rebounds with eight, and in assists with four. Isaiah Wilson had 14 points, Jagger Hutchins scored 13 points and Jaeveon Walton got 10 points.
Kyevi Roane’s 22 points led Mansfield Senior (12-5).
The blemish Simpson found in the game stats was that Lima Senior was out-rebounded by a whopping 18 rebounds by a smaller Mansfield Senior team. The Tygers had a 42-24 overall advantage on the glass and a 25-8 edge in offensive rebounds.
“I’m not happy (about) how we rebounded. I thought we did a bad job rebounding the ball as a team,” Simpson said. “I’m not sure why, but we’ll watch the film and I’ll be able to see why. They out-rebounded us and in order to win games you have to win the rebounding battle. That’s where it all starts,” Simpson said.
“I thought we kind of let our foot off the gas in the second half,” he said.
Fifteen games into the season, though, Simpson is pleased overall with where the Spartans are.
“People say we’re up and down. But I think we’re playing well with the bodies we have,” he said, alluding to point guard Amari Addy being out the whole season so far and 6-6 JeKel Cotton missing the last 11 games.
“Hopefully in the next week or so, we will get Je’Kel back. That will be an enormous help for us. I like the direction we’re going. Guys are locking arms, buying in, and playing for each other. I’m hoping we can continue that.”
Lima Senior shot 56 percent as a team (28 of 50) on Tuesday night. Foster connected on 12 of 16 field goal attempts overall and was 6 of 8 on 3-pointers.
At least half of his six 2-point buckets were on drives and that was intentional, the 6-1 guard said.
“Throughout the season I’ve been trying too many jump shots so I felt like I had to change something, that I had to get to the paint a little bit and get some easy buckets,” he said.
Lima Senior 79, Mansfield Senior 65
Score by quarters
Mansfield Senior 13 15 19 18 – 65
Lima Senior 19 31 10 19 – 79
Mansfield Senior
Duke Reese 8, D.J. Corbin 8, J’ontay O’Bryant 1, Rashad Reed Jr. 7, Karion Lindsay 9, Kyevi Roane 22, Andrew Brooks 2, Ahmaan Thomas 8. Totals: 28-8-65.
Lima Senior
Noah Simpson 4, Jaeveon Walton 10, Isaiah Wilson 14, Kadon Hampton 2, Shawn Foster 30, Dashad Greer 6, Jagger Hutchins 13. Totals: 28-14-79.
Three-point goals: MS – Reed 1; LS – Foster 6, Wilson 2, Hutchins 1.
Records: Lima Senior 9-6; Mansfield Senior 12-5.
