PERRYSBURG — On paper Perrysburg’s boys basketball team looks far superior to Napoleon.
Not only by size, but also when simply comparing records.
But Napoleon has done anything but lay down to the Yellow Jackets this season — and the same held true
Tuesday night.
It took a late fourth-quarter push, but Perrysburg, ranked seventh in Division I, picked up a 61-51 win
over the Wildcats in a Northern Lakes League makeup game.
Perrysburg is 16-1 overall and 9-1 in the NLL, while Napoleon is 7-9, 4-6.
“No surprise whatsoever here on our end,” Perrysburg coach Dave Boyce said of Napoleon’s play.
“They’ve played everybody close,” he said. “Nobody blows them out. Let’s face it, they present matchup
problems. As much as they look small and everything, they’ve got four guys out there who can shoot the
ball.”
Napoleon showed its shooting ability for the first three quarters, but a 4-for-15 effort from the field
in the fourth quarter allowed Perrysburg to close the game on a 14-7 run.
With Perrysburg leading 52-46 with 3:51 to play, senior Nick Moschetti scored inside, stretching the lead
to eight.
Napoleon’s Blake Dunbar followed with a deep two in transition, but Moschetti converted a 3-point play
with 2:30 left, giving the ’Jackets a 57-48 lead, their largest lead to that point.
Moschetti finished with a game-high 29 points and 11 rebounds. Nate Patterson added 17 points, while no
other ’Jacket scored more than eight points.
“He was really into the game,” Boyce said of Moschetti. “He was defensively into the game, he was on to
the boards, he was looking to pass the ball. He’s got the mentality that he knew when we needed him to
get something in for us, and he felt that.”
Perrysburg finished the game with Quinn Thomas and Matt Mesker combining to go 4-for-6 from the
free-throw line, sealing the victory, something the ’Jackets struggled to do last season.
“We’ve been good at being smart in the last four minutes,” Boyce said.
“We have guys that have been in the pressure situation often, so they know how to handle themselves,”
Moschetti said. ‘‘We have great guys that can finish the job on offense and defense.
“It goes with having great chemistry with guys, and people being in that pressure situation before.”
Perrysburg trailed 13-12 after the first quarter then went 10-of-12 from the floor in the second quarter,
building a 34-30 lead by halftime.
Napoleon stayed in striking distance by hitting five 3-pointers in the second quarter, including two from
Dunbar, who finished with 10 points.
Anson Lankenau led the Wildcats with 15 points, while Zach Willeman added 13.
“They hit some tough threes in the first half,” Boyce said. “They hit some catch-and-turn threes off no
dribble. The mid-range jumper was something we knew that we were probably going to give up a little bit
and they made their share, but then they missed some when it counted. We did a much better job finding
the shooters in the second half.
“Ultimately that and rebounding the misses was the key to the game.”
Matt Kaczinski had 11 rebounds as Perrysburg held a 30-17 edge on the boards.
There was no junior varsity game played.
PERRYSBURG 61, NAPOLEON 51
NAPOLEON
Lauf, 0-0—0; Gilliland, 0-4—4; Dunbar, 2-2-0—10; Daman, 1-0—2; Lankenau, 3-3-0—15; Willeman, 5-1-0—13;
DeVaul, 0-1-0—3; Schlade,2-0—4. TOTALS: 13-7-4—51.
PERRYSBURG
Thomas, 0-3—3; Mesker, 0-1—1; Zimmerman, 0-0—0; Kaczinski, 4-0—8; Moschetti, 8-3-4—29; Jordan, 0-0—0;
Hafner, 0-1-0—3; Patterson, 6-5—17; Adams, 0-0—0. TOTALS: 18-4-13—61.
NAPOLEON 13 17 12 9 —51
PERRYSBURG 12 24 9 16 —61
Junior varsity: no game played.