Lima Senior’s Amari Addy, playing for the first time this season after surgery for a torn ACL, dives for a loose ball in front of Mansfield Madison’s Cameron Kuhn during Tuesday night’s Division I boys basketball sectional semifinal game at Lima Senior High School.
Richard Parrish | The Lima News
LIMA — For a game that seemed like it might have a running clock in its future before it tipped off, Lima Senior’s 60-41 win over Mansfield Madison in a Division I boys basketball sectional game Tuesday night had a lot of interesting moments.
First, the Rams (1-22) kept it close enough to be interesting. Not close enough to cause Lima Senior (14-9) to worry, but close enough that the Spartans’ bench wasn’t emptied until four minutes remained in the game.
Next, Lima Senior’s sophomore point guard Amari Addy returned after missing the entire regular season because he had surgery for a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his knee in early June.
And it was the 200th career victory for Lima Senior coach Quincey Simpson. All of those wins have been while he has been the Spartans head coach.
Lima Senior’s next tournament game will be at Sandusky (21-1) at 7 p.m. Friday.
“We hadn’t played since the LCC game. It was a long layoff so, of course, we were a little rusty at times. We needed a game like this to get some of the dust off of us,” Simpson said.
The Spartans took control of the game in the middle two quarters. It started with ramping up the defensive pressure and producing eight turnovers in the second quarter to take a 31-17 halftime lead. Lima Senior’s lead grew to as many as 22 points in the third quarter.
“At the start of the game they were passing the ball around a little more than we wanted so we wanted to speed the game up. We started denying the passing lanes a little more, forcing them to take quicker shots, which helped us a little in transition,” he said.
Jagger Hutchins and Isaiah Wilson scored 12 points to lead Lima Senior and Shawn Foster had 11 points.
Addy, who started as a freshman last season, entered the game with 4:04 left in the first quarter. He finished with seven points and six rebounds. His first points came early in the second quarter when he grabbed an offensive rebound and scored on a 10-foot jumper.
He suffered the injury on Mother’s Day and had surgery on June 6.
“It felt amazing. It felt good being back on the court, being back with my team, and helping my team get the win.” Addy said. “I knew I was going to work toward my first tournament game and helping my team win.
He said the hardest part about not playing was,“Sitting on the bench, just watching, knowing I was supposed to be out there helping them. I just liked being back out there. I’m probably like 85 to 90 (percent).”
Simpson said, “We knew last Thursday we were going to get him back. He’s worked extremely hard. It’s not easy to come back from that type of injury. I thought he looked really good tonight.
“There are some things he obviously wants to get better at. But, like I told him, you can’t make up for missed time. You just have to take small, gradual steps. I think he did a tremendous job tonight.”
Lima Senior 60, Mansfield Senior 41
Score by quarters:
Mansfield Madison 7 10 11 13 — 41
Lima Senior 14 17 19 10 — 60
MANSFIELD MADISON
Will Kepple 6, Justin McCraney 7, Owen Wigton 18, Cameron Kuhn 7, Damien Anderson 3. Totals: 16-1-41.
LIMA SENIOR
Dashad Greer 4, Jagger Hutchins 12, Jaeveon Walton 3, Isaiah Wilson 12, Shawn Foster 11, Noah Simpson 5, Kaden Hampton 3, Amari Addy 7, Amir Simpson 2. Totals: 25-3-60.
Three-pointers: M – Wigton 5, McCraney 1, Kuhn 1, Anderson 1; LS — Hutchins 2, Wilson 2, Foster 1, N. Simpson 1, Hampton 1
Records: Lima Senior 14-9; Mansfield Madison 1-22.
