Two players from state-ranked Lake highlight this year’s boys All-Wood County boys basketball team.
Juniors Connor Bowen and Jared Rettig helped lead the sixth-ranked Flyers to a 21-1 regular-season record
before falling to Toledo Rogers in a Division II sectional final. Lake captured the Northern Buckeye
Conference championship with a 13-1 mark.
"They are the hardest working athletes," Lake coach Ryan Bowen said of the two. "When they
get the awards, it doesn’t come as a surprise because of all the time they put in."
Rounding out the first-team are Nick Moschetti, Perrysburg; Jake Schmeltz, Eastwood; Derek Mack,
Rossford; Jalen Myers, Otsego; and LaMonta Stone, Bowling Green.
Bowen and Moschetti are repeat first-team selections while Mack, Schmeltz and Rettig were on the 2013
honorable-mention list.
The all-county team was selected by the Sentinel-Tribune sports staff.
Connor Bowen, described as an "old school point-guard" by his father and coach, averaged 21.9
points and 8.2 assists per game. He scored a school-record 48 points against Otsego.
"He has the ball in his hands 90 percent of the time. … He pretty much does everything on the
court," coach Bowen said. "He’s kind of like our court general. Everything we do is run
through him."
Connor Bowen also broke Lake’s single-season scoring record with 512 points. The previous record was 451
points.
"He makes things uneasy," Ryan Bowen said. "…We needed him to score more this year and he
stepped up. It’s just been a pure pleasure. … From a coaching standpoint, it’s just been one of the best
years since I’ve been around."
Rettig, a 6-foot-2 wing, led Lake with 9.6 rebounds per game while adding 15.7 points per game.
"He’s an athlete, and he’s just going to do what the team wants," Ryan Bowen said.
"Whatever we need him to do, he does it. He’s a good, athletic body. … He’s got a knack for the
ball. It’s not like he jumps out of the gym, but he gets man rebounds."
Moschetti led Perrysburg to a 19-3 regular-season record and a berth in a Division I district final for
the second straight year.
The 6-3 guard did a little bit of everything for the Yellow Jackets with 22.8 points per game, 5.0 assist
per game, and 6.7 rebounds per game. He scored his 1,000th career point against BG on Feb. 21.
"What he did more than anything this year, was he became more of a complete player. He became a
better defender, a much better rebounder, a much better ball handler," Perrysburg coach Dave Boyce
said. "Anytime you’re a three-year varsity player you get better every year. You get more
experience and the game slows down, and all those things happened for him, too."
Schmeltz, a four-year varsity player, had goals set early in the season – one being to help Eastwood to
its first postseason win since 2010. The Eagles achieved their goal by advancing to a district
semifinal.
Schmeltz averaged 20.0 points per game, leading the Eagles to a 16-6 regular-season record.
"He was really team-oriented this year and focused on team victories," Eastwood coach Matt
Routson said.
Schmeltz also capped career records in 3-pointer made (151), assists (308), and free throws made (311).
His 48 triples this season were a single-season record.
"He really came a long way with shot selection. … He just kind of matured this year and really
focused on team success," Routson said.
Mack, also a fourth-year varsity player, steadily improved, said Rossford coach Brian Vorst.
Mack averaged 17.3 points per game, helping the Bulldogs to a 15-6 mark in the regular season. Rossford
lost to Toledo Rogers in a Division II sectional semifinal.
"I was really happy with the way he learned to defend and to pass up shots when other guys had
better shots than he did," Vorst said. "He just really made himself into a better player, and
he made his team better, too."
Myers was a catalyst for an Otsego team that finished 9-13 in the regular season.
Myers averaged 16.2 points per game and led Otsego in rebounding at 7.2 per game.
"On a nightly basis, he was our sure thing," Otsego coach Jim Bostdorff said.
"He got his chance to shine this year and he absolutely did that," he added. "He was
reliable for us, and really a good defender for us as well. He really has a quick set of hands that get
on a lot of basketballs and tips and such. He was our offense. If Jalen had a bad night, there was
probably a pretty good chance Otsego had a bad night."
Stone, just a junior, proved to be BG’s most important player in every facet of the game.
The 5-5 point guard with a quick first step averaged points per game while leading the Bobcats (4-18)
with 4.2 assists per game.
"Last year LaMonta´ set the single-season assists record, and this year we asked him to be more of
a scorer," said BG coach Mark Malinowski.
"As the season went on he became a better fundamental defensive player," he added. That’s the
area he improved the most on throughout the year. At the beginning of the year, he was used to playing
defense a certain way, and he came more of a team defensive player as the season went on."