MADISON TOWNSHIP — There are three words Mansfield Senior basketball coach and alumni Marquis Sykes has never mumbled in his entire life – Thank you, Lexington.
He plans to swallow his pride after Friday night’s chaotic Ohio Cardinal Conference slate of games. After Sykes’s Tygers beat rival Madison 69-61, the attention turned to Lexington’s home game with Ashland and Dover’s game with New Philadelphia. After Lex beat Ashland and New Phila beat Dover, the Tygers backed into the program’s first Ohio Cardinal Conference championship since the 2018-19 season.
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The Tygers will share the 2025-26 title with Ashland, Dover and New Phila as the championship has to be split four ways with matching 10-4 conference records.
Has Sykes ever said those words?
“No, never,” Sykes said laughing. “But I think I will hit (Lexington coach Scott Hamilton) Hammy up and tell him I appreciate the help.”
The Tygers were locked in a tight one with city rival Madison through three quarters with a 47-44 lead heading into the fourth. That was when senior DJ Corbin took over. He scored 10 of his 12 points in the final frame to help the Tygers to a 22-17 advantage in the fourth to pull off the eight-point victory.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementMoments earlier, Corbin was whistled for his third foul on a 50-50 ball that sent the Senior High crowd into a frenzy. Instead of letting the foul call that sent him to the bench in the third quarter derail him, Corbin regrouped and put up a clinching performance.
“In the third quarter, I faced some personal adversity with that foul call,” Corbin said. “Instead of pouting and getting out of my hookup, I faced that adversity and played the fourth quarter even harder. I have been through adversity my entire career and the key is to not let it mess up the rest of the game. There was still plenty of game left and my team needed me.”
Corbin and fellow senior D’Vontae Johnson each scored 12 points while combining for 16 in the fourth including all but one field goal.
“He is the glue,” Sykes said. “He holds this team together. We have an emotional group, and they tend to get caught up in the moment sometimes, but he and D’Vontae keep everyone together and in the right spots with their emotions in check. We needed it there in the fourth quarter and DJ showed a lot of senior leadership. We needed everything he gave us.”
Mansfield Senior's DJ Corbin helped the Tygers back into a four-way tie for the Ohio Cardinal Conference boys basketball championship with a 69-61 win over Madison.Kaylen Brooks led the Tygers with 23 points while Davion Mack added 13, Andrew Brooks Jr. had six and Sammie Likely IV had three.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementMadison saw a massive performance from Justin McCraney who scored 33 points while Kaleb Gordon and Deonte McDaniel added eight apiece. The Rams led by as much as three points twice in the fourth quarter, but the Tygers closed the game on a 14-5 run to pull off the win. McCraney also added 10 rebounds for a huge double-double.
“The guys have been playing well for a long time now with six wins in eight games and then trading wins and losses for a bit, but we see Mansfield as a great team with a shot to go deep into the tournament and our guys showed they could compete with them,” Madison coach Davey Hipp said. “I am super proud. It sucks to lose and it will never be acceptable, but I couldn’t have asked them to play any harder. Nothing to hang their heads about.”
The Rams were credited for 21 turnovers but took much better care of the ball in the second half against some amped up pressure by the Tygers.
“Our goal was to limit our turnovers to between 8 and 10,” Hipp said. “I think we were close around that. The credit goes to our JV guys who helped us prepare by playing 8v5 on us to prepare for that kind of pressure. The guys did a great job.”
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementThe Rams are now 7-12 on the season for their highest win total of the last three seasons. Hipp is seeing a lot of growth in just his second year in the program.
“Guys like Justin McCraney and Kaleb Gordon and Tyler Medley are laying that foundation by how hard they play,” Hipp said. “McCraney was unstoppable, Gordon handled pressure and Medley ran full court and got a huge block for us. Stuff like that is what is stacking the building blocks.”
The Tygers finish the regular season 15-7 and are the only Richland County boys basketball team to win a conference championship.
“It feels great,” Corbin said. “Even though we feel we should have beat those teams we lost to throughout the season, we are proud of an OCC championship. We got some help from New Philadelphia and Lexington.”
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementThe league title ended a six-season drought and to Sykes, it doesn’t matter if he has to share it with three other teams.
“We will take it,” Sykes said. “It has been a while since we could say we were co-champions or champions, whatever you want to call it, we will take it. I am very excited for our guys because this will give us a nice boost before the tournament. Their confidence should be high.”
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This article originally appeared on Mansfield News Journal: Mansfield Senior Tygers beat Madison Rams, claim share of OCC title
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