Perimeter shooting leads hot Bobcats past Arrows

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ROSSFORD — Is there no one on Bowling Green’s basketball team who cannot hit a three-point shot?

Seven different Bobcats combined to make 11 three-point shots as BG cruised to a 69-53 Division I sectional final victory over Ashland at Rossford’s George Wolfe Field House Friday.

“Honestly, we made a bunch of them, but we missed a bunch of good looks, too. I told the guys this would be a good opportunity to make some shots,” BG coach Mason Roth said.

“Get your hands and feet set and ready, that is what we preach, and we got them in.”

BG improves to 14-10 with the win, and the Arrows’ season ends at 13-9.

BG senior guard Ryan Jackson scored 17, 6-foot-8 junior forward Jabari Conway scored 15 and 6-4 senior forward Jack Suelzer scored 14 to lead the Bobcats.

“We knew they had a couple good players, and we knew that we were well matched against them,” Jackson said.

“We had to get some shots on them and we just had to go out and attack and play our game and let the rest happen.”

Jackson said the gameplan was to get the ball inside, but hey, when you’re hot, you’re hot.

“It kind of happened that way,” Jackson said. “Our actual plan was to get the ball into our big man, Jabari, because no one can guard him, but we had some shooters and Jabari did a good job of dishing to them.”

BG led 15-10 after one quarter but outscored the Arrows 19-6 during the second quarter and the Bobcats added 23 third quarter points to take a commanding 57-34 lead heading into the final stanza.

Junior guard Brock Hastings made two first quarter triples and Jackson added one trey to get the ball rolling.

In the second, Suelzer and sophomore guards Jake Amspoker and Brayden Freyman added one triple each. In the third, Conway, Suelzer and 6-3 junior guard Evan Brandt each hit a shot from downtown.

In the fourth, Suelzer stole the show, hitting two long-range baskets.

“I’d say our whole group played well tonight, but a guy like Jack Suelzer — he hadn’t played in a while,” Roth said.

“Jack’s been put in a tough situation where his minutes have kind of gone, just with the way the rotation has gone, but you give him an opportunity and he stepped up,” Roth continued.

“You have to give him credit because he easily could have been mentally checked out weeks ago, and he came in and made a bunch of shots — like four threes for us.”

BG’s defense had to be on all cylinders, too, because Ashland senior guard Luke Denbow and junior guard Grayson Steury are offensive powerhouses.

Denbow still led all scorers with 21, including three triples and making 6-of-8 free throws. Steury nailed two triples and scored 10 points.

“We actually played these guys in the summer. No. 4 (Denbow) and 24 (Stuery) killed us this summer, so I wasn’t going to let that happen again,” Roth said.

“Watching them on film, those two are really, really good. They are real highly efficient scorers, and I told the guys they are going to score, but we have to make them score on a lot of shots though.”

Meanwhile, BG did not make a free throw the entire game — they did not have to. They only got two chances. The Arrows were 10-for-14 from the line.

For the Bobcats, Amspoker scored seven, Hastings scored six, Brandt scored five, Freyman scored three and senior guard Isaiah Cook added two points.

For the Arrows, junior guard Keslar Bates was an offensive force, scoring 15, junior guard Kamden Mowry scored three and junior guard Landon McFrederick and senior guard Jack Swaisgood scored two apiece.

It was the second time in a week the Bobcats had defeated a team from the Ohio Cardinal Conference. BG opened tournament play with a 55-45 win over Mansfield Madison (11-11) Wednesday.

As a result, the Bobcats are going dancing at the district tournament, facing off against Northern Lakes League champion Sylvania Northview (22-1) Tuesday at Central Catholic’s Sullivan Center, tipoff at 5:30 p.m.

The Wildcats were ranked fourth in the final Associated Press Division I poll, but that is not deterring the Bobcats.

“It’s a district semifinal game. It’s been a long time for our program. This is a great stepping stone,” Roth said.

“Tuesday, it’s not just about being happy to be there, it’s you got to know how to compete at that level if you want to make our program go where it needs to go.”

Jackson added, “This is the first time we won sectionals, so it feels amazing, actually. I’m ready to keep going.”

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