MOUNT VERNON — Scott Hamilton has won more games than any boys’ basketball coach in the history of Lexington High School.
But the veteran coach knows wins at Mount Vernon are hard to come by, including a 66-55 victory on Friday night in an Ohio Cardinal Conference game.
“It’s always nice to get out of Mount Vernon with a win. Over my career, it’s been a very tough place to play and those guys seem to always play well at home,” Hamilton said.
Lexington remained unbeaten at 7-0 overall and 5-0 in the OCC, tied atop the league standings with Mansfield Senior (7-2, 5-0), which knocked off Madison on Friday night.
Mount Vernon, which started the season 4-0, slipped to 4-5 overall and 2-4 in the OCC.
It was the first game since Dec. 17 for the Minutemen, who had games against Mansfield Senior and Ontario postponed due to weather-related issues.
Seniors Hudson Moore (19 points, six rebounds) and Baden Forup (17 points, seven rebounds) led Lexington, which led 17-9 after one quarter and 32-23 at the half.
The Yellow Jackets battled back in the third period, outscoring the visitors, 20-17, to trail by just six going into the fourth. But the Minutemen outscored Mount Vernon, 17-12, in the final eight minutes to pull away.
“I thought we had a decent game plan going into the game after being off for 11 or 12 straight days,” Hamilton said.
“We may have shown a a little sign of some rust, but I thought the guys handled it pretty well when they made their run in the third quarter,” he said.
“In the fourth quarter, we extended the defense and ended up putting it away. I couldn’t be happier of the guys after that long layoff,” Hamilton said.
“Of course, there’s not much time to rest since we have three games next week,” he said.
Freshmen Brayden Fogle also finished in double figures for Lexington with 12 points and led the Minutemen with nine rebounds.
Senior Hudson Rohler led Mount Vernon with 37 points, connecting on 12 of 18 FG attempts, including eight of 11 triples. He was the only Yellow Jacket in double figures.
Lexington shot 59 percent from the field (26-44) and added 10 of 13 at the foul line. Mount Vernon shot 40 percent from the floor (19-48) and was perfect on six free throw attempts.
The Minutemen had a 33-16 rebounding edge and committed nine turnovers, compared to seven for the Yellow Jackets.
Lexington has three home games next week — Wooster on Tuesday, West Holmes on Friday and Clear Fork on Saturday.
Mount Vernon also hosts three games next week — New Philadelphia on Tuesday, Ashland on Friday and Newark on Saturday.
