Fogle, Lexington out-duels Bruskotter, Shelby in battle of Richland County's best
LEXINGTON — It is far from Lexington assistant coach Mason Willeke's favorite basketball clichés, but it doesn't mean it isn't true.
To win big games, you have to make basketball plays.
That is exactly what the Lexington Minutemen did in a 61-57 win over the Shelby Whippets in yet another instant classic between the two Richland County rivals. The Minutemen made multiple basketball plays down the stretch to knock off Shelby in what looks like a district tournament showdown just waiting to happen.
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Take your pick. The 3-pointer by Lexington sophomore Seven Allen with the game knotted at 51-51 to give Lex the lead back, the finish in traffic by Lexington sophomore Brayden Fogle to retake a 56-55 lead late in the fourth, or perhaps the biggest play of the game when Lexington sophomore Dantrell Hughes slipped behind the Shelby defense for an easy layup off of a pass from junior Gavin Husty to give the Minutemen a 59-57 lead and eventually the win.
Lexington coach Scott Hamilton liked the last one the best.
“Last night (Friday night against New Philadelphia), we had a similar play where we were trying to post up a guy and we got the matchup we wanted and his (Dantrell) twin brother, Latrell, hits a back cut for a layup that sealed the deal for us. They have played a lot of basketball and have a high basketball IQ to know when to make a cut. Jamie Feick always used to say when things break down, you have to make a basketball play and my guys did that a couple of times tonight.”
Cue the Willeke eye roll. And a smile to follow.
Hughes finished with six points off of the bench and none were bigger than his final two.
“I just saw my teammates trying to make plays and working the defense and my coach always tell us to move without the ball and I just cut backdoor and got the layup,” Hughes said. “It felt great because I knew I had to contribute somehow and to do it with a big shot, I was happy to help my team out.”
Fogle led Lexington with 21 points on 10-of-14 shooting with nine rebounds, two assists, two blocks and two steals while Allen and sophomore Joe Caudill added nine points apiece to help Lex win in front of a sellout crowd in the biggest game of the season.
“This has become a huge rivalry game of ours and to get this win is huge,” Fogle said. “I feel like this win, especially, emphasizes that we may be sophomores, but we are here to play and to win despite our age. It was a big win.”
On Friday night in an Ohio Cardinal Conference game against New Philadelphia, Fogle ended the game with no rebounds, unusual for a kid averaging nearly 10 a game, so when he stepped on the court against Shelby, his No. 1 focus was to rule the boards.
“My mom was on me about that and so was coach Hammy,” Fogle said. “Coming into tonight, we knew how big and long they were and we had to make sure to get rebounds if we wanted to win this game.”
The challenge was issued to Fogle during walk-throughs on Saturday morning as he, the coaches and his teammates had a little fun with the goose egg in the rebounding category. Just how much did Hamilton remind Fogle of a zero-rebound performance?
“A lot,” Hamilton said with a laugh. “He stepped up big tonight and that is what he is capable of and we know that. I was ragging on him in the walk-through this morning about being 6-foot-5, 210 pounds, and not getting a single rebound to fall into your hand, so we rode him pretty hard and his teammates did the same because of the high expectations we all have for him. There were some things tonight that he wanted to make sure he accomplished and got done and he did that. And he will be the first to tell you that this was a team win.”
It was an absolute team win. Eight players reached the scoring column and seven secured rebounds at different moments in the game. The Minutemen had 12 assists on 26 makes as they shot 48.1% for the game.
“I treated it as if we were the underdog with all of the talent Shelby had coming back and a Division I athlete on the court,” Hamilton said. “We really built it up for our kids. I have to give credit to my guys. They really stepped up even with five sophomores in the rotation that maybe haven’t seen this kind of action before.”
The Division I athlete was Shelby senior Alex Bruskotter who finished with a game-high 32 points and 13 rebounds for a huge double-double. He shot 10 for 25 with every shot being contested and was sent to the line 16 times.
“We knew going in Alex was their best player and we had to give him a ton of respect,” Fogle said. “But we also took the approach that this is our territory, he is coming here and, for me, I always want to approach every game as if I am the best player on the court no matter what and I feel like that is how I attacked the game. But he earned a lot of respect with a 32-point game.”
The Whippets shot 31.7% going 19 for 60 from the field and 3 for 14 from 3 with 12 turnovers. Despite a cold shooting night, the Whippets had the ball down two and a chance to tie it before a traveling call forced a turnover and put the ball back in Lexington's possession for the final dagger, a Joe Caudill layup with less than 10 seconds left to put the game out of reach.
“We had a lot of missed opportunities on both ends of the court,” Shelby coach Greg Gallaway said. “I thought offensively, we didn’t shoot it great. The fact we were in the game shooting 31% is kind of crazy. A lot of missed opportunities and we got to the line a lot, but we just have to be better at moving the ball and getting other guys involved. We took some good shots, we just didn’t get them to fall.
“Defensively, there are things with this veteran group that we need to get better at like not losing a guy in transition. There will be some things to work on as a team that will make us better.”
Gallaway gave a ton of credit to Lexington.
“They have a lot of guys who can hurt you and have a lot of balance,” Gallaway said. “They push the tempo and can also slow it down to keep teams honest defensively and can score at the rim and around the perimeter. They present a lot of problems.”
And one of those problems is activity on the boards, yet Shelby won the rebounding battle 42-31, a bright spot for Gallaway.
“We had multiple keys, but our biggest one was to win the rebounding battle and we did that,” Gallaway said. “It was awesome because we can grow and build on that. I was glad that we sold out on the glass against a physical team like that.”
Shelby (6-2) will look to put the loss behind them as they travel to Ontario on Thursday to continue their quest for a Mid-Ohio Athletic Conference championship, which is a much bigger goal than winning a nonconference game.
“With a 22-game season, if you just worry about what just happened the game before, it is going to be a long season,” Gallaway said. “We obviously want to win these games, but it is behind us and we have to move on. We have to get better on Monday.”
Lexington (10-0) heads into the new year riding high after the emotional win. They host West Holmes on Friday and have a secure lead in the Ohio Cardinal Conference standings. After Saturday night, they hope the win is a springboard for the rest of the season.
“It was a team effort, man,” Fogle said. “We had to keep throwing different defense at them and Gavin (Husty) deserves a big shoutout because despite being undersized, he played some great defense on Bruskotter. Our student section, our crowd, it was a huge effort.”
And even though the win over Shelby didn't clinch a league championship or win them anything other than a regular-season basketball game, Hamilton wants his team to be proud of its accomplishment because it was a big win.
“There are a lot of bragging rights at stake,” Hamilton said. “We have established ourselves for another week in the Richland County Power Poll as No. 1 and that is a goal of ours. I reminded the guys that this was a big win. We built it up as a coaching staff because of what happened last year and how the district game went down to the end. We knew it would be a 32-minute battle and it wasn’t going to be won in the first or second quarter.”
A 32-minute battle they won by making basketball plays.
Que Willeke's eye roll and smile again.
jfurr@gannett.com
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This article originally appeared on Mansfield News Journal: Lexington Minutemen beat Shelby Whippets in Richland County boys basketball
