Second quarter costs Norwalk in road loss

TIFFIN — After losing six straight games, host Columbian needed a win Thursday, and that's exactly what it got. After a slow start with a 14-6 lead over visiting Norwalk, the Tornadoes erupted for a 22-4 second quarter en route to a 61-22 rout in Sandusky Bay Conference Lake Division play. TC (4-7, 1-3 SBC Lake) turned up its pressure defense after the opening frame as Norwalk (0-10, 0-4) committed 17 turnovers to just one for the Tornadoes. TC started the second quarter on a 13-0 run and never looked back. Norwalk defended well in the first quarter and had several open looks on the offensive end, but couldn't connect. Logan Gooding led all players with 16 points for TC, while Blake Miller chipped in 13 and freshman Kyle Hepp had eight points in his first start. Xavier Saunders paced the Truckers with 11 points. "This is how it's gone for us pretty much the whole season to this point where we compete for a quarter and things just get away from us no matter how many timeouts I call," Truckers coach Adam Kreischer said. "I think I called three timeouts in that run in the second quarter to keep it as close as I could, but right now it really comes down to, we can't really talk about skill deficits we have until we get stronger." The Truckers host Mansfield Madison (2-6) on Tuesday in a non-league game. "Tiffin is like many teams we play," Kreischer said. "It's not like they're super strong, but they're stronger than we are. So they bump us off the ball, they knock us off our path to set screens and they move us even when we're boxing them out. "We have young guys, but until we fall in love with the weight room and get stronger, it doesn't matter how skilled we are." NORWALK (0-10, 0-4) Kingston Gonzales 2-2—5; Xavier Saunders 4-1—11; Nolan Jones 1-0—2; Caiden Schmidt 1-0—2. TOTALS 8-3—22. COLUMBIAN (4-7, 1-3) Nolan Miller 3-0—7; Blake Miller 5-1—13; Jax Diamantopoulos 1-0-2; Logan Gooding 6-1—16; DaShawn Russell 2-2—6; Blake Tucker 2-0—4; Parker Nye 2-0—4; Kyle Hepp 3-0—8. TOTALS 24-5—61. Norwalk 6 4 9 3 — 22 Columbian 14 22 19 6 — 61 3-point FGs: (N) Saunders 2, Gonzales; (TC) Gooding 3, B. Miller 2, Hepp 2, N. Miller.