Norwalk shoots past Port Clinton

NORWALK — Playing on Monday nights can get tricky. There is no practice to start the week, which takes away the ability to tweak some things after the previous game over the weekend — good or bad. But despite all that, the Norwalk girls basketball team never looked better so far this season. The Truckers got three 3-pointers from three different players in the first quarter of Monday's non-league game against visiting Port Clinton and never looked back in the 59-32 win at Norwalk High School. With the win, Norwalk stayed unbeaten at 5-0 overall, while Port Clinton fell to 3-3. "We shared the ball really well and moved the ball offensively," Norwalk head coach Brock Manlet said. "We hit some shots, which got us going a little bit. But I'm most proud of our defense tonight." That included attempting to slow down Port Clinton standout DC Lanier. And while she scored 20 points — above her 15.2 average coming in — she had to work for it over all four quarters. Lanier scored two points in the first quarter and five in the second as Norwalk built its lead. "That's what we said on our scouting report — DC is going to make tough, contested shots against us," Manlet said. "But you can't be discouraged. You just have to keep doing it each possession and hopefully she misses some shots. "And when we did, we got a few run-outs for easy baskets at the other end," he added. "We got away from the press and played man-to-man and really forced them into tough shots — Trinity (Lazzara) and Shyla (Gruhlke) especially on DC. And I thought we rebounded the ball really well." Norwalk led 16-6 after one quarter, as it got 3s from Abby Koenig, Lucy Schlotterer and Lazzara. Koenig added two more 3s in the second quarter, while Lazarra added four points to help the Truckers to a 27-13 lead at the half. "Norwalk is a great team and we were down a couple players, so we decided to start in a zone and hope they had an off night shooting," Port Clinton head coach Kevin Belden said. "But they did not have an off night … they had a really good night. "We were hoping that would happen, and it did not. I thought we did a nice job of getting back into it a little bit in the second quarter, but then they went on a nice run there to put it back up to double-digits." The ball sharing that excited Manlet was evident in the third quarter, as all 14 of his team's points came from four different players. Alyssa Gruhlke and Kenzie Smith made 3s, while Koenig and Leber also added baskets. Already leading 41-23 through three quarters, the Truckers quickly blew it further open with an 18-9 scoring edge over the final eight minutes. "One thing we can't really control is how well we shot the ball against a zone," Manlet said. "But the main thing I liked is how we shared the ball. We had some nice assists to our post players and we were finding each other in our offense." Koenig finished with 16 points for Norwalk. Lazzara scored 12, while Emmie Leber added eight and Lucy Schlotterer scored seven. The Truckers host Tiffin Columbian in SBC Lake play before hosting Oregon Clay in non-league play on Saturday. PORT CLINTON (3-3) Olivia Spencer 0-1—1; Shelby Isaac 0-1—1; Eriegonna Buckley 2-3—7; Alana Zibert 1-0—3; DC Lanier 7-3—20. TOTALS 10-8—32. NORWALK (5-0) Hailey Rinner 0-1—1; Alyssa Gruhlke 2-0—5; Delany Illuzzi 2-0—4; Abby Koenig 4-5—16; Kenzie Smith 1-2—5; Emmie Leber 3-2—8; Emma Gebhardt 0-1—1; Lucy Schlotterer 3-0—7; Trinity Lazzara 5-1—12. TOTALS 20-12—59. Port Clinton 6 7 10 9 — 32 Norwalk 16 11 14 18 — 59 3-point FGs: (PC) Lanier 3, Zibert; (N) Koenig 3, Gruhlke, Smith, Schlotterer, Lazzara.