MILLBURY — Connor Bowen and Jared Rettig reached individual milestones Friday night, enabling Lake’s boys
to remain undefeated.
Bowen became the school’s all-time leading scorer and Rettig scored his 1,000th career point in the
Flyers’ 89-40 victory over Genoa.
Bowen scored a game-high 19 points as he passed Mike Smith as Lake’s career scoring leader.
The 6-foot point guard needed just nine points to match Smith, a 1998 graduate, and he reached the
milestone on a jumper from the top of the key with 2:37 remaining in the first half. Bowen finished the
game with 1,122 career points.
Rettig scored his 1,000th point on a layup off a steal with 2:37 to play in the first half. The 6-2 guard
started the game with 997 points.
The milestones were part of a dominant performance by the Flyers, who built a 17-0 lead just 2:47 into
the game.
“This is a team thing. Without the team, I couldn’t have accomplished this,” Bowen said.
“It’s a great accomplishment, but it’s even better because we won and we played well,” Rettig said.
The two have been friends since they were in diapers.
Bowen’s mom, the former Robin Ptake, and Rettig’s mom, Tricia Askins, were star athletes and teammates at
Lake.
“It’s awesome we were able to do it on the same night,” Bowen said. “We’ve been friends since we were
really, really little. We’ve been talking about being able to do this on the same night and it worked
out great.”
Lake improved to 7-0 overall and 3-0 in the Northern Buckeye Conference. Genoa is 4-3, 1-2.
“The greatest compliment I can give them is as great as athletes as they are, they’re even better
people,” Lake coach Ryan Bowen said of his son and Rettig. “That’s going to take them far in life.
They’re great leaders. They’re very humble. They’re about the team first, not their stats. They’re the
first ones here and the last ones to leave. They work hard.”
But as well as Connor Bowen and Rettig played, Lake had plenty of other contributors.
Adam Duncan drilled three 3-pointers in the game’s first 89 seconds en roue to 16 points. The Genoa
defense focused on Connor Bowen and Rettig, leaving Duncan open and he took advantage.
Drayton Williams added 13 points off the bench when starter Todd Walters had to leave with two fouls in
the first two minutes of the game.
Nathan Permar came off the bench to score six of his nine points in the first quarter.
“We had unbelievable team play tonight, offensively and defensively,” coach Bowen said.
The Flyers’ pressure defense — both full-court and half-court — disrupted Genoa’s offense. The Comets had
31 turnovers, including 29 Lake steals.
The steals led to numerous layups and Lake also executed well in its half-court offense. The Flyers shot
64 percent from the field, making 36 of 56 shots, including 10 made 3-pointers. Lake had 29 assists and
a 33-18 rebounding edge.
The Comets’ first seven possessions in the game resulted in turnovers. Genoa shot 14 of 37 (38 percent)
from the field.
“Our offense fed off our defense,” Rettig said. “We’re pushing right away when we get turnovers. When all
five of us are flying around, we’re getting layups and easy shots.”
“Everyone on the team was playing in-your-face defense tonight,” Connor Bowen said.
Lake’s lead was 30-5 after one quarter, 48-13 at the half and 77-23 after three quarters.
“When we play defense like that, we get our hands on a lot of balls, and we contest a lot of shots,” the
elder Bowen said. “The kids trust each other to be in spots. If we gamble, they know somebody will be
behind them to help. When you play team defense like that, it makes the game easy.
Connor Bowen also had 10 assists, eight steals and zero turnovers. Rettig had eight rebounds, four
assists and seven steals.
Also for the Flyers, Brandyn Neal had eight points, five rebounds and five assists, and Duncan had five
steals, four assists and two rebounds.
“The bottom line is all of the kids have bought into their roles. Because of that, we’re a good team,”
coach Bowen said.
The Flyers and Rossford share the NBC lead. They meet for the first time Jan. 13 at Lake.
“Right now, we feel really good, but we can’t be satisfied,” coach Bowen said. “Our kids have to continue
to be hungry. Our senior leadership is phenomenal right now. They’re just as hungry as we are. If we can
keep them biting at the bit, that’ll be great. They know we can have something special and they’re
working to achieve that.”
Lake won the junior varsity game 49-36. Julio Mata led the Flyers with 11 points and Jordan Bekier added
10.
LAKE 89, GENOA 40
GENOA
Heninger, 0-1-0—3; M. Bradfield, 2-1—5; Kauder, 2-2—6; Rightnowar, 3-1-3—12; Goodrich, 1-1-2—7; Brossia,
0-1-0—3; White, 2-0—4; Sutter, 0-0—0. TOTALS: 10-4-8—40.
LAKE
Rettig, 5-1-3—16; Walters, 1-0—2; Duncan, 3-3-0—15; Neal, 1-2-0—8; Bowen, 8-3—19; Williams, 2-3-0—13;
Permar, 3-1-0—9; Urias, 1-0—2; Abbey, 0-1—1; Ellison, 0-0—0; Little, 2-0—4. TOTALS: 26-10-7—89.
GENOA 5 8 10 17 —40
LAKE 30 18 29 12 —89
Junior varsity: Lake, 49-38.