Truckers come up short in loss to Perkins

PERKINS TWP. — A year ago, Perkins shot just 27 percent from the field in a 17-point home loss to Norwalk. The Pirates turned the tables Tuesday night. Perkins started hot and stayed hot in a 74-46 SBC Lake Division victory over the Truckers. The Pirates (7-2, 3-1 Lake) shot 53 percent from the field and got points — and assists — from all nine of their players in uniform. "We've got great shooters, and to have great shooters you have to have great passers," Perkins coach Eric Kochendoerfer said. "I had us down for 20 assists for the game. "Not only did we have 20 assists, but it might be the first time in my career that every player on our team had an assist. I couldn't have been prouder with how the basketball moved." Senior post Tim Boals led the Pirates with 15 points and 11 rebounds. His reverse layup off an assist from Levi Groot gave Perkins a 27-point lead (47-19) early in the third quarter. That topped off a 12-0 Perkins run. The Pirates had an 11-0 run in the first quarter after Norwalk's Mason Gamble scored the game's first basket for the Truckers' only lead. Norwalk came to life in the third quarter and ripped off a 14-0 run. Jordan Parriott's 3-pointer started the run and a bucket in transition by Ben Rothhaar cut Perkins' lead to 50-37 with 2:32 left in the quarter. "The difference was a little bit of energy," Norwalk coach Adam Kreischer said. "We started picking up the basketball and went back to man defensively. "We started to play the way we are capable of for a little stretch and then they banked in a 3 and it started rolling again from there." Kellen Glass' banked 3-pointer with 1:53 left in the third quarter gave Perkins a 53-37 lead and triggered a 12-0 run that put away the Truckers (4-6, 1-3). "They got in rhythm and we had a little lull on defense," Kochendoerfer said of the back-and-forth third quarter. "We brought in some guys and it picked up our energy and extended the lead pretty quickly. It pushed the tempo and got back to Pirate basketball." Levi Groot and Glass each finished with 11 points for Perkins. Kash Koch added 10. Groot, a 6-4 junior, left the game with an injured ankle with 5:07 left in the third quarter. "That dude (Groot) played incredible defense," Kochendoerfer said. "Mason Gamble (eight points) is one of the best players in our league and Levi did an incredible job on him. T-Boals did a great job on Rothhaar. That led to our victory tonight." Rothhaar, whose last day of high school is Friday, is headed to Rutgers University on a football scholarship. He finished off a decorated high school career with 15 points and eight rebounds. Early in the fourth quarter, Rothhaar made his only 3-pointer of the season. "I didn't have many words for our team after the game we just played, but I did thank Ben for everything that he's meant to our basketball program, our school system as a whole and all our athletic teams," Kreischer said. Parriott added 11 points for the Truckers, who shot 35 percent from the field. Norwalk hosts Tiffin Columbian (4-8, 0-3) on Friday. "We did not guard the way we have been defending lately," Kreischer said. "They were able to get out in transition, attack the rim from multiple positions and we could not guard them man to man, which is disappointing for our crew, which has been able to guard everybody man to man this year." Perkins rolled to the convincing win without starting point guard Joey Diederich. The All-SBC senior was held out because of "personal reasons," Kochendoerfer said. "He should be back on Friday (at home against Bellevue) and we'll get our team rolling again," Kochendoerfer said. NORWALK (4-6, 1-3) Jordan Parriott 4-1—11, Mason Gamble 4-0—8, Garrett Demuth 3-0—9, Ben Rothhaar 6-2—15, Kingston Gonzales 1-0—3. TOTALS 18-3—46. PERKINS (7-2, 2-1) Sam Schweinfurth 2-0—6, Kash Koch 3-2—10, Bryce Davie 3-0—6, Tim Boals 7-1—15, Levi Groot 5-0—11, Kellen Glass 5-0—11, Vinny Strohl 2-0—6, Ashton Wadsworth 1-0—2, Kaden Legando 3-1—7. TOTALS 31-4—74. Norwalk 12 7 18 9 — 46Perkins 22 19 19 14 — 74 3-point FGs: (N) Demuth 3, Parriott 2, Rothhaar, Gonzales; (P) Schweinfurth 2, Koch 2, Strohl 2, Groot, Glass