Perkins edges Norwalk in SBC Lake

PERKINS TWP. — Norwalk probably played better than Perkins for three quarters. But the Truckers were done in by a tough night at the line and a few too many turnovers. Norwalk made less than half of its free throws and committed 19 turnovers that loomed large in a 69-67 loss to the Pirates in Sandusky Bay Conference Lake division action Friday. "I thought we made some careless passes at times and that hurt us," Norwalk coach Adam Kreischer said. "We definitely out-rebounded them and we didn't give up too many second shots. We got back in transition defensively. One thing we didn't do a great job of was taking care of the basketball." Mason Gamble hit a 3 to bring the Truckers (6-9, 3-6 SBC Lake) within 65-62 late in the fourth quarter. After a Norwalk timeout, Braylon Collier was fouled with 19 seconds to go. He made both to push the lead to five points. Ashton Coe scored on the other end, but the Pirates (10-4, 4-4) milked the clock until Collier was fouled again with just 6.1 seconds to go. He calmly made both free throws to give Perkins enough room to finish the win. Coe hit a 3 near the buzzer for Norwalk, but it wasn't enough. "We really competed," Kreischer said. "We obviously didn't shoot the ball well from the foul line. We talked about needing to take care of the ball and not allowing them to get transition baskets." The Truckers led by as many as 10 points in the second quarter and still by seven points in the third quarter. But, Brennan Koelsch got hot for Perkins at the right time. He hit a 3 and scored back-to-back buckets in the final 20 seconds of the quarter to bring the Pirates within 47-46 after three quarters. "Brennan hit some big shots in the third quarter for us," Perkins coach Eric Kochendoerfer said. "Without Brennan Koelsch in that third quarter, this could be a different outcome. He struggled in the first half, but he didn't keep his head down." Joey Diederich opened the fourth quarter with a 3 to give Perkins its first lead since 5-4 in the first quarter. Coe tied the game at 49 on the other end, but Weston Sturzinger splashed in the Pirates' 10th triple of the night. Ahead just 54-51 later, Drake Venerucci heated up for Perkins. He hit three 3s in just over two minutes to push the Pirates' advantage to 64-54 with 2:06 left. It's the third straight win for Perkins over Norwalk after 10 consecutive losses. The Truckers used a run of nine straight points in the first quarter to take an 11-5 lead. Norwalk at times was able to slice and dice its way through Perkins' tough defense with precision for an easy basket. A lot of times, the Truckers weaved it up court to a wide-open Braedyn Demuth. He hit four 3s in the first half and scored 16 points. Two triples by the senior pushed Norwalk's advantage to 24-14 just over two minutes into the second quarter. "That's what took the pressure off at times," Kreischer said. "When they were trying to bring that pressure at us, we had it set up to sit Braedyn in the corner and we would find him." Behind Collier's 16 points, Perkins got 13 points from Kolesch, 12 points and 11 rebounds from Jayden Rowe, and 11 points by Venerucci. Demith finished with 22 points while Coe came on strong and tallied 20 points. Gamble scored 10 points, Brayden Malson added seven points and seven rebounds, and Ben Rothhaar contributed six points and nine rebounds. "It wasn't like Koelsch gets hot and hits eight 3s," said Kreischer of what became 12 3-pointers on the night by Perkins. "You can live with that because he can flat out shoot the ball. It was a lot of various guys that were stepping up and knocking down shots against us." NORWALK (6-9, 3-6) Ashton Coe 9 1—20, Mason Gamble 4 1—10, Braedyn Demuth 8 2—22, Brayson Malson 3 1—7, Ben Rothhaar 3 0—6, Dalton Chapin 1 0—2. TOTALS 28-5—67. PERKINS (10-4, 4-4) Braylon Collier 4 6—16, Drake Venerucci 3 2—11, Joey Diederich 2 1—7, Jayden Rowe 4 4—12, Brennan Koelsch 5 0—13, Michael Young 2 0—4, Weston Sturzinger 1 0—3, Jon Normington-Slay 1 0—3. TOTALS 22-13—69. Norwalk 18 10 19 20 — 67 Perkins 10 14 22 23 — 69 3-point FGs: (N) Demuth 4, Coe, Gamble; (P) Venerucci 3, Koelsch 3, Collier 2, Diederich 2, Sturzinger, Normington-Slay.