MILLBURY — Scoring on series after series of back door cuts, scissors plays, and give and goes, Perrysburg shocked Sandusky, 66-51, in a Division I district semifinal at Lake High School’s Flyer Fieldhouse Tuesday.

As a result, Perrysburg opened a 22-9 lead by making 11-of-14 shots, most of them layups off screens and back door cuts.

It was simple, fundamental basketball, and the Blue Streaks never really caught on to what was going on. For Perrysburg coach Dave Boyce, it was either take advantage of Sandusky’s aggressive defense or be victims of it.

“They overplay a lot and they are going to get some turnovers because of that and they are going to give up some layups on the flip side,” Boyce said.

“I thought we followed our game plan really well. We executed,” Boyce continued. “They have quick hands and we had some turnovers that didn’t look that good but for the most part, it was not terrible decisions, it was just where they got a hand on it.”

For the Yellow Jackets, it was the difference between playing “AAU” basketball or playing smart basketball.

“We go through it in practice every day, and you just have to give credit to my teammates for preparing for the game,” Perrysburg senior Gavin Fenneken said. “That’s ‘AAU’ ball and I’ve been playing that since I was in fifth grade so I was ready for that.

“With those teams that overplay like that, that’s just classic Perrysburg basketball. We start cutting backdoor, and we start cutting without the ball and we executed.”

Sandusky coach DeMar Moore said his team knew what was coming, but it did not help.

“They executed us to death,” Moore said. “I mean, they are really good at that. We prepared for it, we talked about it, we went over it, and they were still able to get it. We had a lot of bad defensive possessions tonight.

“Anytime you win 21 games and when you lose, it hurts. The better team won tonight, you know. They out-toughed us and they outplayed us.”

Perrysburg senior Matt Hubbard led the Jackets with 18 points, seven rebounds, and two steals, junior guard Austin Shultz scored 18 and junior Carter Young scored 12 points.

Because of the way Perrysburg executed, they shot 63% (31-for-49) from the floor. The Jackets got just three free throw attempts, making two

Meanwhile, Sandusky had 16 more shots, but made 10 less (21-for-65) for 32%. The Blue Streaks were 5-for-9 from the line and had 11 turnovers.

Perrysburg (17-7) advances to Friday’s 6 p.m. district final against the winner of Toledo Whitmer and Anthony Wayne.

Sandusky, the Sandusky Bay Conference Lake Division champions whose only prior loss was in non-league action to Whitmer, finishes 21-2.

Sandusky, which lists six players at 6-foot-5, all two inches taller than Perrysburg’s tallest starter, was led by junior guard Jason Henlon, who had 20 points and five rebounds, and 6-5 forward Aa’zoriyon Bonner had 13 points, nine rebounds, and two steals.

The problem ultimately did not become Sandusky’s height so much as their full court pressure defense, which caused 16 Perrysburg turnovers, including 11 steals. But the Jackets somehow managed.

“We thought open court turnovers would be the key to this game and if we could, from foul line to foul line, not turn it over we’d have a great chance,” Boyce said. “I think we had a couple stretches but we built a big enough lead early that it would absorb a little bit of the run.”

Sandusky became extremely aggressive in the second quarter, forcing five Perrysburg turnovers, including two steals by 6-5 sophomore guard Anthony Redding, but the Jackets held on for a 28-21 halftime lead.

In the third quarter a drive by Perrysburg senior Joe Dynda pushed the Jackets aherad 40-25, and Shultz scored at the third stanza buzzer to push the lead to 16, 52-36.

Young scored in the paint early in the fourth, putting the Jackets up 56-36, and from there it was all about spreading the Perrysburg offense out and taking care of the ball.

Only problem was, Perrysburg’s tallest starter, the 6-3 Hubbard, who plays more post than anything, found himself bringing the ball up the court.

“Gavin was running a lot and I had to give Gavin some breaks a lot,” Hubbard said. “I mean, he was handling the ball the whole game with a guy in his face the whole time.

“I just kind of took a role and just brought it up sometimes — just fundamentally just kept them on one side and did my best to bring it up and give him a little break.”

Boyce joked that Hubbard, who will play NCAA Division I baseball at the University of Toledo after graduation, has a diverse set of talents.

“He’s got some talents that people don’t know about. We keep him in the closet most of the time,” Boyce said, joking.

Either way, getting through 32 minutes with a team like Sandusky took its toll.

“We were all gassed,” Hubbard said. “We went hard the whole game, and it’s just the senior leadership on the team right now. We’ve got four seniors and we’ve gone through a ton of adversity together.”

Fenneken finished with eight points, six rebounds and two steals, senior Joe Dynda had eight points and seven rebounds, and junior Finn Brownfield added two points.

For the Blue Streaks, which started five juniors, guard Amir Aaron had six points, seven rebounds and two steals, guard Azarieon Arrington scored five points, guard Kobe Brown had four points, four rebounds and two steals, and Redding had three points, five rebounds and four steals.