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Ford’s 30 points powers Springfield to easy victory
By ERIC FORTUNE
NEW MIDDLETOWN
Despite his team’s convincing 51-24 victory over Lordstown, Springfield High basketball coach Eric Fender felt it was a strange night.
“Very weird,” Fender said Wednesday. “That’s what you get after a holiday break.”
Both teams combine for 5-of-6 free throw shooting in an otherwise cleanly played game where the Red Devils (3-5) shot better than the Tigers (6-0) at 44 percent to 42 percent.
But the Red Devils, who weren’t at full strength because of the flu, couldn’t overcome their lack of field goals (25) and Jake Ford whose 30 points for the Tigers was the difference in the game.
“We had a good game,” Ford said. “We play [well] together as a team.”
The other 13 players who scored for both teams were led by Lordstown’s Collin Himes and Michon Peterson with six apiece.
“Jake’s a special kid,” Fender said. “He’s put a lot of time and a lot of hard work into the game of basketball.
“We saw bits and pieces of what he could do last year,” Fender said. “And this year, now that he’s a senior, he’s got that opportunity.
“He’s got the green light any time he wants and he deserves it. He’s definitely a key player for us.”
Ford ignited the Tigers, scoring 14 of the team’s 18 first-quarter points as Springfield opened up an 18-7 advantage on 8-of-11 shooting.
The Tigers’ play on both sides of the ball was instrumental to overcoming a Red Devils offense that wanted to control the tempo by spreading Springfield out and looking to get a good shot.
“We’re just not very good,” Lordstown coach Brian Force said. “We didn’t execute very well and we couldn’t stop their only player.
“That was basically the whole night,” Force said. “I’m not going to make any excuses for our team. We’re not very well coached.”
Fender felt the Red Devils did a nice job in the first half defensively by throwing out an extended 2-3 at his team.
“We didn’t get to the middle as fast as we should have and we didn’t convert on some of the opportunities that we had,” Fender said.
Play was stagnant in the second quarter with just eight field goals between both teams as the Tigers were able to push their lead out to 28-14 at the half.
“We wanted to push the tempo, trap a little bit, make them uncomfortable, and get some turnovers which would lead to some easy buckets,” Fender said. “In the second half, we went to a little man-to-man and make them do some things that I don’t think they were comfortable doing.”
The Tigers held Lordstown to just 10 points in the second half as they built their lead out to 20 after three quarters.
The Lordstown defense was able to hold the rest of Springfield’s offense in check, but Red Devils struggled getting enough quality looks and turned the ball over constantly throughout the game.