BY CHRIS MANNINGNorthern Tier Sports Report
MANSFIELD — Troy held off a late NP-Mansfield rally, 69-56, to claim their second straight NTL Boys’ Basketball Showcase title on Friday.
The Trojans led most of the way, by as much as 20 midway through the third, but they saw the Tigers cut it to a 5-point deficit early in the fourth.
From there, though, Troy out scored them 14-6 to get the win.
“This is part of the journey,” Troy coach Bob Woodward said. “It’s about making memories with your team, and you’re young one time. These guys have put a lot of work into this each day, and the way they treat one another is special. They’re doing things the right way for each other.”
On the offensive end if the ball went in the basket for the Trojans Lincoln Chimics likely had something to do with it on Friday, as he led the team with 19 points, and eight assists, to go with five boards.
It was quite the collective effort, though, as all five starters reached double figures.
“That’s what we’re built around, is sharing the ball,” said Chimics. “Nobody cares who gets the credit.”
Jack Burbage added 15 points, eight boards, and three assists, while Joseph Frye had the hot hand from deep, connecting on four 3-balls en route to 14 points, to go with four assists.
“It just felt good to see them go in,” Frye said about his shooting. “I like to see other people score, honestly, and I like to be defensive, but to see them going in is nice.”
Evan Woodward had 11 points, four boards, four assists, and four steals, as Trey Teribury notched 10 points.
The Trojans hit 10 3-balls on the day.
NPM’s Cooper Shaw led all scorers with 25 points while Alex Davis chipped in with 10.
“They’re a great team, they’re a great program,” Woodward said about NP-Mansfield. “They have really good size, and they have good basketball players. They played extremely hard tonight.”
The Tigers did a good job of limiting Troy’s fast break opportunities early in the game, which allowed for a back and forth contest.
Burbage put Troy up 2-0, and Chimics had a bucket for a 4-2 lead, but NPM rallied to tie it up both times.
They would take a 6-4 lead, but a Woodward 3-ball put the Trojans up 7-6.
A Davis put back made it 8-7 NPM, but a Burbage 3-pointer saw Troy go up 10-8.
Andy Hermansen hit a lay-up to make it 10-10, but the finished out the first quarter on an 8-0 run with 3-pointers from Burbage, and Chimics, along with a lay-up by Teribury.
Shaw opened the second quarter with a 3-pointer for an 18-13 score, but two freebies from Burbage, and a 3-pointer out of Frye put the Trojans up double digits for the first time Friday night.
A 3-0 Mansfield run made it a 7-point game, but a 3-pointer from Frye, followed by a put back out of Woodward pushed the Trojan lead to 12.
NPM came back with a 5-point spurt to make it 28-21, followed by the two teams trading buckets.
Frye then hit his third 3-pointer of the quarter, followed by a late Woodward lay-up saw Troy open up a 35-23 lead at the half.
“It was pretty important,” Frye said about his team’s seven first half threes that allowed them to take a double digit lead despite NPM doing their best to force a half court game. “But we’ve just got to get back into our fast paced offense so that we don’t have to rely on that every game.”
The deep ball continued to be their friend as their first three baskets of the second half were threes by Teribury, Frye, and Chimics to take a 44-25 lead.
Shaw came back with a 3-pointer of his own, but back to back buckets from Chimics made it a 48-28 game.
That’s when the Tiger rally started as they out scored Troy 13-3 the rest of the frame to cut the deficit to 51-41 going into the fourth.
A Tayton Strange 3-ball made it 51-44 right out of the gates in the final frame, with Burbage coming back to hit two freebies.
The two teams traded buckets again, followed by a 4-0 run by the Tigers to make it 55-50.
Troy came back with a 4-0 run as Woodward got a lay-up, then found Teribury for a bucket to take a 59-50 lead.
After an NPM score made it 59-52 Troy notched three straight field goals by three different players - Burbage, Frye, Chimics - to push their lead to 13 points.
“We’re going to face adversity throughout the entire season, and we’re going to continue to face adversity,” Chimics said about NPM’s rally. “It’s all about the way we respond to it, and I felt we responded pretty well.”
A Davis bucket cut it to 65-54, but Troy out scored NPM 4-2 the rest of the way to secure the win.
“The last three minutes I thought we did a good job taking care of the basketball,” Woodward said. “We try to use spacing, and we were fortunate enough to get to the line.”
This marks the final step of NTL play for Troy, now they’ll start their march to a district championship, beginning next Thursday at home with an opponent still to be determined.
‘100-percent’ is how Chimics described their motivation to play for a district title.
“But we can’t look ahead to anything else,” he added. “We’re going to keep it one practice, one game at a time, and just see how far our bus can take us.”
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PHOTOS BY CHRIS MANNING
