SYLVANIA — Lindy DeLong struggled Friday night at Southview.
In fact, Perrysburg’s entire team struggled.
But like all good teams, the Yellow Jackets found a way to win, yet again, beating Southview 31-28.
DeLong had what was arguably her worst shooting night of the season, but she was perfect from the
free-throw line when it mattered the most.
Desperately clinging to a 29-28 lead with eight seconds on the clock, DeLong found herself in a spot for
redemption. After Southview’s Sarah Klepzig missed a layup inside that would have put the Cougars ahead,
DeLong snagged the rebound and was fouled.
She stepped to the charity stripe in a one-and-one free throw situation after seeing teammates Allex
Brown and Abby Sattler miss the front ends of their one-and-ones on Perrysburg’s two previous
possessions.
“I knew in my head I had to hit those,” DeLong said. “It seemed like everybody was struggling, especially
myself. It was a lot of weight on my shoulders, but I knew I had to do it.”
The 5-foot-8 junior, who finished 3-for-4 from the line, sank the ensuing two free throws, allowing
Perrysburg to hang on for the Northern Lakes League win.
“I didn’t really want to talk to anybody on my team. I couldn’t let them get in my head,” DeLong said of
her mind-set in a timeout just before the free throws.
Southview’s Jessica Horwitz took a 3-pointer from the left wing at the buzzer, but the shot barely caught
the rim, and Perrysburg extended its NLL winning streak to 25 games.
The ’Jackets, ranked No. 11 in the first state poll, are 11-1 overall and 9-0 in the NLL.
“Over the course of a 22-game season, you’re not always going to play well. I don’t care what sport it
is,” said Perrysburg head coach Todd Sims. “Sometimes you’ve just got to grit it out. And these guys
do.”
Sarah Baer’s 14 points and nine rebounds led a Perrysburg team that struggled mightily in the first half
as it trailed 14-9 at halftime.
Southview’s zone defense forced Perrysburg to score from outside rather than get its usual points inside
with Baer and Brown. And the shooting did not go well.
The ’Jackets connected on just five shots from the field in the first half, and four of those were
layups.
“At halftime our heads were down. We weren’t very confident in ourselves,” DeLong said.
“They had a lot of passes per possession,” Sims said of Southview. “The way to combat that is to make
some shots and get ahead … well we couldn’t make any shots.
“I don’t know that we made many more shots in the second half,” he added. “We fought a lot and got
rebounds and put backs and got to the foul line. We’re a much better shooting team than we did tonight.”

A 6-0 run to start the third quarter gave Perrysburg life.
Baer sparked the spurt with a steal and went coast-to-coast for a layup as she was fouled. Perrysburg
out-scored Southview 12-6 in the third while it forced seven Cougar turnovers.
“One thing about basketball is when you’re not scoring, you seem slow, even on defense. It’s almost like
you’re more tired than you would be,” Sims said. “When you’re making shots, you’ve got more energy,
you’ve got more pep in your step. And when we were struggling to score, we looked a step slow.
(Southview) looked really excited and we were lucky we weren’t down more than just five at halftime.
“We played with a little more energy in the third quarter, a little more desperation.”
Perrysburg won the junior varsity game, 26-13. Macy Tudor led Perrysburg with seven points.
PERRYSBURG 31, SOUTHVIEW 28
PERRYSBURG
Sattler, 1-0—2; Hunter, 1-0—2; Moore, 1-0—2; Witt, 0-0—0; DeLong, 0-3—3; S. Baer, 6-2—14; Piezer, 1-0—2;
Brown, 2-2—6. TOTALS: 12-7—31.
SOUTHVIEW
Huntsman, 0-1-0—3; Pappas, 1-0—2; Horwitz, 0-0—0; Stanley, 2-2-0—10; Moody, 0-0—0; Westphal, 2-3—7;
Klepzig, 3-0—6. TOTALS: 8-3-3—28.
PERRYSBURG 5 4 12 10 —31
SOUTHVIEW 7 7 6 8 —28
Junior varsity: Perrysburg, 26-13.