Short-handed Truckers fall to Sandusky

NORWALK — Baby steps, one at a time. This season, the Norwalk boys basketball team returned no varsity experience from last year's team. Things might be tough for the Truckers this year, but small improvements each night is what coach Adam Kreischer is looking for. Norwalk showed that Saturday, hanging with Sandusky into the third quarter. The Blue Streaks kicked it up a notch in the second half, running away with a 58-29 Sandusky Bay Conference Lake Division victory. "I was really effort with our effort in general," Kreischer said. "Here's the thing. We have a player we haven't seen this year with an injury. We already have low numbers and we're inexperienced. "We had Jack Pittenger out with an injury tonight," he added. "Denzille Williams went down with a knee injury. Kingston Gonzales was in foul trouble the entire game. For us to hang around as long as we did and have the effort we had tonight under those circumstances, I'm super proud of our guys." The Truckers (0-4, 0-1 SBC Lake) were within 22-12 at halftime and even 28-14 more than two minutes into the third quarter. Sandusky (2-2, 1-0), unsatisfied with how it played in the first half, turned up the pressure and got going the final five-plus minutes of the third quarter. Kymirr Hunter opened the second half with two free throws for the Blue Streaks before Ahmaj Woolfork made it 26-12. After Williams scored for the Truckers, Sandusky tallied the next 11 points. Hunter picked a steal and scored before Cam Jones tallied a three-point play. After an empty possession for Norwalk, Jones dropped in a bucket to make it 37-14. "We wanted to make it difficult for them," Sandusky coach DeMar Moore said. "In the first half, I thought we let them move the ball around pretty easily without taking away some passes. "I thought in the second half, we locked in defensively and that was the difference in the game." From there, Daishaun Brown got hot for the Blue Streaks. Following four points from Jones, he hit a pair of 3-pointers as Norwalk trailed 49-21 after three quarters. "I thought that we had a pretty good defensive game plan that we executed pretty well," Kreischer said. "I don't think we did an amazing job and never turned it over. But, we didn't let them go on those streaks that they go on where you have three or four live-ball turnovers that they turn into layups at the other end. "In that first half, we didn't turn it over a ton. When we did, it wasn't live-ball turnovers. We were able to set our defense and execute our defensive game plan." The Truckers trailed just 6-4 early when Sandusky ripped off a 7-0 run. Norwalk cut within 15-8 after one quarter on the strength of a bucket from Josh King. The margin was still just seven points more than midway through the second quarter before Sandusky got a little bit of offense. A score from Hunter put the Truckers down 22-12 at halftime. Johnson led Sandusky with 17 points while Jones and Brown each registered 11 points. Hunter had nine points and Anthony Redding finished with six points and 10 rebounds. "There's not many times I've come out of a 29-point loss and be as proud of a group as I was," Kreischer said. "They stuck together the whole team. You're playing against a Sandusky team and only turned the ball over 22 times. Shoot, we had 24 turnovers in the first half against Vermilion a few nights ago. We're growing. We're getting better." Xavier Saunders topped Norwalk with 13 points. "Like a lot of our guys, Xavier just needs to grow up a little bit," Kreischer said. "What I mean by that is maturity on the court, both in practice and out of practice. When he has the kind of effort that he did tonight consistently, yes, Xavier is probably our leader scorer. Xavier is one of our top three players. "We just tried to get through to Xavier early in the season that it takes a consistent mental focus for him." The Truckers are off until traveling to Clyde (1-2, 0-1) on Friday. "There's some teams that we're going to play this year that we're probably not going to come out on the winning side of things," Kreischer said. "We have to consistently get better so that the games that we do have a chance to compete in, we are competing in and find a way to get a few wins. That's what we're looking for." SANDUSKY (2-2, 1-0) Anthony Redding 2-2—6, Ahmaj Woolfork 2-0—4, Cam Jones 3-4—11, Kymirr Hunter 3-3—9, Dale Johnson 4-9—17, Daishaun Brown 4-0—11. TOTALS 18-18—58. NORWALK (0-4, 0-1) Xavier Saunders 4-4—13, Nolan Jones 3-0—6, Brandon Carty 1-0—2, Caiden Schmidt 0-2—2, Denzille Williams 1-0—2, Josh King 2-0—4. TOTALS 11-6—29. Sandusky 15 7 27 9 — 58Norwalk 8 4 9 8 — 29 3-point FGs: (S) Brown 3, Jones; (N) Saunders.