ASHLAND – The math Jason Hess has been teaching his Ashland High basketball team wouldn't fly in the classroom, but it helped the Arrows pass a huge test.
One of the reasons Ashland is no longer winless and Mansfield Senior is no longer perfect in Ohio Cardinal Conference play is because the Arrows made a more concerted effort to attack the rim instead of settling for jumpers in Tuesday's 65-55 win in overtime over the Tygers.
"It's definitely been emphasized," 6-foot-5 junior Garrett Denbow said after scoring a game-high 24 points. "We've done a lot of drills where twos are worth more than threes. It's just a mentality we've had."
In practice scrimmages, twos are worth three points and threes are worth one point.
It all added up to a drought-busting win for the Arrows (1-8, 1-4 OCC) over the Tygers (6-3, 4-1), whose own version of bad math was shooting 20 of 76 from the field (26 percent).
"It's a combination of things," coach Marquis Skyes said. "Over the break, we weren't able to get in a rhythm because of funky practice times and we didn't practice at all on Monday because it was a snow day."
Despite its shooting woes, Senior High a few times appeared on the verge of running the hosts out of Arrow Arena.
The Tygers scored the first six points of the second half for a 32-27 lead, triggered by a couple of steals by Breyon Mills and a no-look assist by Jornell Manns.
But the Arrows forged ahead after three straight baskets by Denbow and rallied again after falling behind 40-34 in the fourth quarter. They went back in front with 59 seconds left and were 8.9 seconds from victory when junior Klejhan Randleman split two free throws to make it 47-44.
That was just enough time for Da'Quan Hilory. He scored a team-high 17 points for the Tygers, none bigger than his 3-pointer to beat the buzzer and send the game into overtime.
From there, though, it was all Arrows. They scored the first seven points of the four-minute extra period and kept 3-pointers from Manny Bronson and B.J. Patrick (13 points) from mattering by making 9 of 12 free throws in the final 1:14.
"We just stayed composed," Denbow said about the way Ashland responded to Hilory's triple at the end of regulation. "As soon as it happened, I told the guys, 'Just relax,' because we had them ... we had them the whole game."
The Arrows got 41 points from their pair of 6-5 juniors as Randelman backed Denbow with 17, including 8 of his team's 18 points in overtime.
So how did they keep it together, not just after Senior High forced overtime but after starting the season 0-8?
"Hard work at practice and coach telling us 'We're right there,'" Randleman said. "We've grown together and we're working together as a team.
"Coach got on us about going to the basket before this game, so that's what we did."
Hess laughed when he learned his players were giving away their math secrets.
"We had to change the mindset the last couple of weeks to increase the effort and reward attacking the basket, so we finagled the way we score practice drills," he said. "The kids learned pretty fast ... I need to go to the basket."
The Arrows started 1-6 two years ago before winning 10 of their next 13. Maybe this win over the league-leading Tygers will trigger a similar turnaround. This much is certain: Nobody quit on the season.
"It's the quality of kids we've got," Hess said. "It's easy to point fingers when things aren't going right. I'm not saying it was peaches and cream every day, but the kids hung in there. They trusted the coaching staff and each other. Everybody was accountable for the situation we were in. No one was happy; nobody was satisfied. OK, we've wasted a third of the season. We better wake up."
Senior guard Mitchell Heilman gave Ashland a third double-figure scorer with 12 points and 6-5 senior Kamrin Knowlton-Goings added eight, including the last basket in regulation and the first basket of OT.
"There's a lot of basketball left to play," Hess said. "A conference championship is going to be tough to reach, but we can definitely play a big part in deciding who does get a chance to win it and can spoil some dreams and goals and have fun doing it."
The Tygers don't have a lot of time to feel sorry for themselves. They welcome crosstown rival Madison on Friday night.
"They've got ballplayers over there and they're well-coached," Sykes said of Ashland. "We knew eventually they'd get some wins. We were hoping the first one wouldn't be against us, but they'll be in the mix. They'll have plenty more wins. Tonight just wasn't our night."