PERRYSBURG — The Anthony Wayne girls basketball team showed up in Perrysburg Thursday looking to win an outright Northern Lakes League Buckeye Division championship, while a Perrysburg win would keep the Yellow Jackets in the running to share the title.
Perrysburg didn’t make it easy, trailing by just 39-38 entering the fourth quarter, but the Generals defense went on lockdown in the fourth quarter, now allowing a field goal, to pull away for a 54-39 victory.
“We knew coming in here that they were going to make us earn it,” AW coach Jami Carter said. “They are a very good team, they are a well-coached team, so it wasn’t any surprise to us.
“We just had to tell our kids, ‘Expect anything as far as game plan,’ and obviously they had a good one.”
AW, ranked fourth in the state Division I Associated Press poll and undisputed NLL Buckeye Division champions, are 19-2 overall and 7-0 in the NLL, while Perrysburg falls to 15-6 and 4-3.
The five teams in the Buckeye Division are a combined 54-12 against non-league opposition (including NLL Cardinal Division teams), so winning the inaugural Buckeye title is no small potatoes.
“This division is tough night-in and night-out,” Carter said. “We are competing against some of the toughest teams in Northwest Ohio.
“Our team, we’re blessed with a lot of talent, but the thing is they are such unselfish kids, they can play together, obviously, and you can tell by our play.”
The Bender twins, junior wings Elise (6-foot-1) and Brooke (6-0), combined to score 47 of AW’s 54 points, with Elise scoring 27, including three makes from the arc, and she grabbed eight rebounds. Brooke scored 20, including four triples, and had nine rebounds.
That’s standard procedure for the Generals on the offensive end of the court, but this time the Generals had to shut down a stingy Perrysburg team in the final eight minutes, and the Yellow Jackets failed to knock a shot down from the floor on eight attempts.
“What was really special about tonight is we got it done on the defensive end and a lot of times it is our offense that carries us,” Carter said.
The first time the two teams met in Whitehouse, the Generals hit seven triples, including on four straight possessions, in the first quarter and went on a 36-3 run to ultimately defeat the Jackets, 68-45. AW scored 30 first quarter points and led 49-19 at halftime.
Perrysburg coach Todd Sims was not about to let the same thing happen again, and this time he had a game plan — play deliberate basketball and limit AW’s offensive possessions. It worked, for three quarters.
“If they were going to stay back we were going to stall or hold it as long as we needed to, but obviously when they come out like that (defensively) it’s super hard to do that for super long periods of time because it’s really fatiguing and tiring when you are just running around in circles,” Sims said.
Perrysburg senior center Gabby Ortyl scored in the paint with 25 seconds remaining in the first quarter to keep the Yellow Jackets to within one possession, 7-4.
In the second quarter, Perrysburg never never trailed by more than five points, and even took a 16-15 lead when junior guard Hayley Griggs scored three straight baskets.
Griggs drove to the basket to get her 6-0 personal run started, knocked down an 18-footer, and then scored on a dish from sophomore forward Hayden Siebenaler, putting Perrysburg up with just over two minutes remaining in the first half.
AW took a 24-21 lead into the second half then opened their first double-digit lead, 31-21, on an Elise Bender layup early in the third quarter.
But Perrysburg responded with a 13-3 run, tying the game at 34-34 when sophomore forward Sophie Mitchell got to the rim with 2:50 left in the third stanza.
Griggs scored on a drive with two seconds in the quarter to close the gap to one point again, 39-38, before AW’s defense locked down in the fourth.
“It couldn’t have lined up any better,” Sims said. “Obviously, we looked like we got tired and they are really good. Let’s not take anything away from them. When it was game-winning time they were ready to do it and they did.
“That’s why they are 19-2 and they’ve played some really tough teams around the state. I liked everything — there isn’t anything I disliked about tonight at all. I like the game plan, I thought we played well, it just didn’t work out for us.”
In the first half, AW shot just 36% (9-for-25) from the field, but they were at 59% (13-for-22) the second half, finishing at 47% (22-for-47). Carter said it was only a matter of time.
“We harp on our kids all the time — keep your composure, keep shooting — it’s eventually going to go into the basket,” Carter said.
Griggs led Perrysburg with 17 points, including four triples, Mitchell scored 11, junior guard Ayla Turk had six points and five rebounds, junior guard Chloe Kilbride scored three points, and Ortyl finished with two points.
Siebenaler did not score, but she had a team-high six rebounds and two steals. The Jackets made 16-of-43 shots (37%) from the field and were 3-for-5 from the line.
AW got just four free throw attempts, making two, and the two teams combined for just 12 turnovers — seven by Perrysburg and five by AW. AW held a 31-25 edge rebounding.
Junior guard Sophie Smith scored four points and sophomore guard Leah Pike had three points and four rebounds to round out AW’s scoring.
For Perrysburg, it was also about honoring three players on Senior Night — Ortyl, guard Taylor Jockett and center Reagan Wilkinson.
