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Mincher gets 1,000th point, but Lisbon tops Springfield
By ERIC FORTUNE
LISBON
The Lisbon Blue Devils know the Springfield Tigers too well.
They’re the team that has ended their season the last two years.
So despite being in different tiers of the Inter -Tri County League, it was probably sweet justice to get a 76-60 win over the Tigers on a night when Springfield’s Graham Mincher went over 1,000 points for his career.
“Springfield has probably cost these guys a couple of league titles,” Lisbon coach Chris Huckshold said. “It’s been that type of rivalry. We’re in the same boat they were last year with a lot of seniors. They have a tradition. They were prepared and executed.
“It doesn’t matter who is in that uniform. They controlled the tempo in the first half. We struggled until we got ourselves in the right position.”
Mincher was the reason the Tigers (4-3) were able to stay in the game in the opening half. He scored 14 of his game-high 29 points as Springfield battled back within one on his 1,000th point with 53.6 seconds left before intermission. The Tigers eventually led 32-30 at the break.
“I was kind of expecting it especially after a couple of shots started falling in the second quarter,” Mincher said. “I knew I was getting close because it seemed like every time I kept scoring, everyone started getting more excited.
“It’s exciting, but in all my years it hasn’t exactly been a big deal to me. It’s always been about winning the game, but it’s exciting to have everyone clap for you like that. It was a good feeling.”
Mincher looked like he was going to continue where he left off scoring the opening bucket of the third quarter to give the Tigers their largest lead of the game at four, 34-30.
“He’s just a phenomenal player,” Springfield coach Eric Fender said. “He can do so many different things. We need him to play well in order for us to have a chance to win.”
But after a Mincher 3 made it 40-36, the Blue Devils (6-0) started rotating different defenders at Mincher and used their size to their advantage. They limited him to just three field goals the rest of the game as they started making everything themselves with 10-of-14 shooting in the quarter.
“We tried to do different things by sending different people at him,” Lisbon’s Austin Rutecki said. “We tried to throw him off his game. We tried our best to slow him down after he got off to a fast start. We wanted to limit him as much we could.”
The Blue Devils finished the quarter on a 16-5 run to open a 52-45 lead.
“They are prepared every game,” Huckshold said. “They threw everything including the kitchen sink at us — box-and-one, triangle-and-two. We got a little caught up in the moment in the first half with the crowd. We slowed it down, relaxed and made the adjustments. We found our open shots and got done what we should have done.”
Josh Craig scored eight points in the third and another 10 in the final quarter to lead Lisbon with 21 points.
“Obviously, we have some big kids,” Huckshold said. “There are no ifs and’s or buts about it. We have some kids that can catch the ball and finish at the rim. We just relaxed in the second and found the holes.”