First-place Heath avoids slip-up against Newark Catholic to take boys basketball win
HEATH — The Heath boys basketball team did not always play the defense coach Devin Fulk wanted Saturday, so Ben Mason made sure the Bulldogs’ offense rarely had an empty possession.
Mason scored inside and outside. The 6-foot-2 senior took advantage of a rare edge in size to rack up 24 points and 11 rebounds in Heath’s 70-44 victory against visiting Newark Catholic in Licking County League-Cardinal Division play.
“I was getting my shots in rhythm and just crashing the glass, and sometimes it’s just luck when the ball bounces to you,” said Mason, who hit four 3-pointers but also did heavy lifting in the paint off cuts and offensive rebounds.
“We don’t get a lot of teams we play where we are bigger, so I definitely tried to crash the glass a little harder because I thought I could probably out-jump a couple guys,” Mason added.
Heath (7-2, 4-1) maintained a one-game lead in the Cardinal in what was potentially a trap after falling at the buzzer to Northridge and winning at Watkins Memorial.
The Bulldogs ran out to a 35-16 halftime lead before the Green Wave (1-9, 0-6) closed to within shouting distance at 52-39 after three quarters. Mason’s 16 second-half points helped the Bulldogs win going away in the fourth.
“Ben was huge today,” Fulk said. “Who knows what that game would have looked like if he didn’t play the way he did on both ends?”
NC made 9 of 10 free throws in a 23-point third quarter as an obviously irritated Fulk voiced frustration with the way the Green Wave were beating a path to the basket. The youthful Green Wave, however, were undone by scoring only five points apiece in the second and fourth quarters.
“Our biggest issue right now is consistency,” NC coach Travis Schwab said. “We talk and talk and talk about playing 32 full minutes, and we’ve yet to do that, so we’ve broken it down into eight-minute quarters. … I am really proud of the kids in the third quarter. They refocused, and we went on a little run.”
Mason did his work all the way from beyond the 3-point arc to above the rim. On a second-quarter inbound from underneath the NC basket, he jumped to grab a perfect pass from sophomore Jordan Kaminsky and dunked with two hands.
“We put that in (a couple days ago) in case they ran a 2-3 zone from out of bounds, and they did,” Mason said. “We executed it perfectly.”
Kaminsky and junior Preston DeVito supported Mason with 11 points and four assists apiece. Nine Bulldogs cracked the scoring column, including senior Tucker See, who hit two fourth-quarter 3s.
“I was really happy for (See),” Fulk said. “He and Scott Humphrey both have been great in practice all year. I know they don’t get the minutes they would love to get, but man, they are great kids.”
Junior Griffin Urdarovski scored 8 of his 13 points in the third quarter for NC. Freshman Jaxon Holman matched him with 13 points, and senior Owen Helms added 9 points, hitting two 3s.
NC begins a three-game homestand when Utica visits Tuesday. The Green Wave host Johnstown on Friday to wrap up the first round of Cardinal play.
“We are still building and still developing, but I love my kids,” Schwab said. “We are going through some tough times, but we are going to be better for it in the long run. … This still is the best team I have ever coached in practice on a day-in and day-out basis.”
Heath continues its busy stretch against New Albany at 3:30 p.m. Monday at Ohio Dominican. The Eagles knocked off Pickerington North and Pickerington Central this week.
The Bulldogs then visit Johnstown on Wednesday. They, however, were not going to look past the Green Wave first.
“We are competing for the league title, so we knew we couldn’t let this one slip away,” Mason said. “That was in the back of our mind the whole game.”
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This article originally appeared on Newark Advocate: Heath avoids slip-up against Newark Catholic to take basketball win
