Be Ware: Mansfield Senior senior Maurice Ware explodes for 30 points in win over Wooster
MANSFIELD — Pete Henry Gymnaiusm was going absolutely wild.
After jaws hit the floor, pure pandemonium set in.
Moments earlier, with Mansfield Senior leading Wooster 55-48, Tygers senior Maurice Ware collected a pass at the top of the key, took two dribbles, cupped the ball in his right hand, gathered his feet and took flight.
His one-handed tomahawk jam helped seal a 59-48 Ohio Cardinal Conference victory over the Generals Friday night in the season opener for both teams. Ware ended up with a game-high 30 points but none were bigger than the loudest two.
"A play like that, you felt the air go out of the other team," Mansfield Senior coach Marquis Sykes said. "They were struggling to score on that stretch and then we have a guy make a play like that and it brought the house down. After that play, I felt like we were going to win the game and our guys felt it, too."
The jam came with just under two minutes left in the game and gave the Tygers a nine-point lead. The Generals couldn't muster another point after that.
But the play almost didn't happen. Nursing a lead late in the game, the Tygers wanted to burn some time off the clock while Wooster was upping the pressure in the halfcourt. Instead of taking time off the clock, Ware rocked the rim, which turned out to be a better plan anyway.
Yet, he didn't credit that one play for giving the Tygers the momentum to win the game. It was the smaller plays throughout the game that decided it, he said.
"The plan was to burn time," Ware said. "That was the original plan, but as I got closer and closer to the rim, I knew I was close to 30 so I just used my athleticism, rose up and dunked on them. That did give us momentum but, more than that, every rebound, every time we dove on the floor and making great passes to finish layups was where it all came from. Credit to my guys."
Ware was sensational from the opening tip. He scored 17 points in the first half, including two 3-pointers that ended up being crucial because they forced the Generals to guard him a bit closer, which allowed him to use his quickness off the dribble to get easy shots.
"He is a great talent," Wooster coach Michael Snowberger said. "I thought there were times where Jack (Williams) played him well. He had a hand up, and if he gets any closer he probably fouls him. In the second half, we tried to limit his touches as much as possible, but when he gets the ball, he is hard to stop.
"He was knocking down 3s so he stretched us out a bit and then he started getting to the basket and also hit some pull-ups. This is one of those times you just have to tip your hat to a kid. He is a great player."
After trailing 14-10 at the end of the first quarter, the Tygers (1-0, 1-0) turned to Ware early and often, and he scored 13 points in the second quarter alone to help give his team to a 33-26 halftime lead. The Tygers leaned heavily on Ware and he responded like a senior leader.
"We did and he stepped up," Sykes said. "He made plays toward the end of the game both offensively and defensively. I haven't seen the stat sheet yet, but I would guess he had more than 10 rebounds. Add on a career-high of 30 points and he had a great debut. We are going to need it. I hate to say we are going to lean on him a lot this year, but we will need him to do that for the time being until our young guys grow up."
Wooster cut its deficit to 43-42 at the end of the third quarter and 47-45 midway through the fourth before Tyger sophomore Elias Owens made back-to-back buckets to push the lead to six, giving way to Ware to score the final eight points of the night.
It was the big play of some young players that helped the Tygers preserve the lead and respond each time Wooster had an answer.
"Owens made some great plays for us and Karion Lindsay was our starting point guard from start to finish, Ja'Ontay O'Bryant played a great game and they are going to be guys who contribute a lot for us this year and they had a great start to the season," Sykes said.
Wooster (0-1, 0-1) was led by Drew Dossi with 14 points while Blake Bo added nine, Williams had eight and Javar Simpson added seven for a nice balanced attack.
And despite the loss, Snowberger said he is not worried.
"I told the kids, what we are on Dec. 3 is nowhere what we are going to be in February and March," Snowberger said. "We will be two different teams because we have nowhere near the experience we had in the past. We have a lot of seniors, but not a lot of varsity quarters.
"That stuff will come. We were down one with three minutes to go and we ended up 8 of 18 from the foul line. Those things will happen, but we will continue to get better."
The defending Ohio Cardinal Conference champions dropped their first league game of the year after going 11-1 in OCC play last season. Still, Snowberger knows there is a ton of basketball yet to be played and the Generals are far from out of the OCC title picture.
"We don't really ever talk about OCC championships or anything like that," Snowberger said. "We talk about getting better and understanding that we want to be playing our best at the end of the year. This was basically our second scrimmage and our kids gave great effort."
For Skyes, it was a bit of a monkey off his back, with the Tygers having not beaten the Generals since Dec. 28, 2018.
"They beat us five straight times and we felt like we owed them," Sykes said. "No better time than tonight with our home and season opener to come out and make a statement against the defending OCC champs. In the OCC, you have to protect your home court because if you don't, you have no shot."
The Tygers did just that and Ware put the league on notice with his 30 points. Brock Hill and Owens chipped in with seven apiece.
Mansfield Senior travels to Lima Senior on Saturday before it travels to Mount Vernon on Friday.
jfurr@gannett.com
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Twitter: @JakeFurr11
This article originally appeared on Mansfield News Journal: Maurice Ware leads Mansfield Senior over Wooster in opener
