Senecas win tough road game at H-L

BASCOM — League games are never easy. Especially, on a rival's home floor.Calvert came out of the blocks a bit slow Wednesday at Hopewell-Loudon, but with a 20-4 second quarter, the Senecas took control up 30-13 at halftime. H-L stormed back and got within three points a few times late in the fourth, but Calvert held off the Chieftains for a key 52-40 Sandusky Bay Conference River Division victory."First quarter we didn't do a great job of finishing, I think we counted about five missed layups and some of those were on fastbreaks, so we need to do a better job of finishing especially around contested pressure," Calvert coach Jon Otterbacher said. "Defensively, we didn't talk very well and we were fronting the post, which we said not to do, which gave them some easy looks. "We got that fixed in the second quarter and I thought we played a lot better and smarter in the second quarter. We finished and gave up only one offensive rebound in the quarter, which was one of the keys for the night to keep them off the boards."Despite a slow start, the Senecas (6-1, 3-1 SBC River) led 10-9 after the first stop as Blake Ronski came off the bench and drained a buzzer-beating 3 to end the quarter. He began the second frame with another three, which sparked a monstrous 18-2 run for the Senecas. H-L's Daniel Lommerse scored a basket at the 6:27 mark of the second period. The Chieftains (5-4, 3-3 SBC River) didn't score again until a Luke Jameson layup with 24.8 seconds left in the half.In the meantime, the Senecas were going to work.Ronski had eight points in the run, while Nick Seifert chipped in seven.The Senecas were up 17 at the half."When (Ronski) comes in and scores like that and plays good defense and get some rebounds and deflections he's a pretty nice player out there for us," Otterbacher said. "That's our sixth man coming off the bench, which is a nice tool to have coming in late in games. He's a good free throw shooter and he has good length to guard, so we like him on the court in pressure situations."It's a game at Hopewell-Loudon. There's no way it would be that easy and Calvert would cruise in the second half. Right?Coach Roger Jury's squad came out with energy and focus to get back into the game, which started with a 6-0 run behind baskets from Lommerse, Ried Jury and Jameson. The Chieftains chipped away and were down 36-26 heading into the fourth.Hopewell-Loudon ratcheted up its defense in the fourth period, causing seven Calvert turnovers. It helped H-L get back in it with easy baskets as they got within 39-35 after an Evan Kreais layup and then 41-37 after a Lommerse tough layup and then to 42-39 after a Jury pullup jumper with 3:42 remaining. The Chieftains got all the way back. But Jack Shultz made a jumper in the lane and Ronski converted a key tree-point play to give the Senecas a 47-39 edge with 1:40 left. The Chieftains couldn't get close again as Calvert made 5 of 6 free throws to close it out."We try to look at some positives too even though we have a couple seniors we have a young team in many ways, but I told them when you go down 17 or 19, I told them I was really proud of them because at that point you're handing them on a silver platter a chance to lose by 20 or 30," Jury said. "They didn't quit and scored the first six points of the second half and cut the lead to three at one point. That's right back to a new game, so I can't fault their effort tonight. "The second quarter offensively wasn't very good and we didn't play with as much tempo. Halftime, there wasn't anything we could do because the score is whatever the score is. I told them I see flashes. Our league is really good. There will be some really good records and I don't know how many league wins we'll have, but we went on the road at St. Joe's and it was 43-42 at one point in the fourth quarter and Calvert is a great team with a lot of kids back and to cut it to three late was big. It was just a couple things here and there tonight."Jameson led the Chieftains with 15 points and 11 rebounds. They also got 12 points and three assists from Jury, while Lommerse ended with 11 points."We gave ourselves a small chance to get a win tonight when we cut it to three because of the type of kids they are and we can continue to grow from there," Jury said. "We can at least be competitive and continue to surprise some of these big dogs in the league that have a lot of players back. Hopefully that will come at some point. "We have to go back to work, but I know they have the capability to do these things. I'm more impressed with our mindset. If you play a team like Calvert and you're down by 17, you're gonna lose by 30. You're never happy with a loss and free throws were horrendous (6-15) again tonight and if we make a couple free throws or make a couple plays here or there we're only down 12 at halftime then who knows how the game ends up. I told them we are that close."Ronski led the Senecas with 15 points, while Seifert chipped in 12 points and nine boards and Spaun tallied 10 points and four assists. With two wins in two nights after a 17-day layoff, the Senecas are looking for more."The long layoff kind of hurt us and we're trying to get our legs back underneath us," Otterbacher said. "Decision-making down the stretch will get better and smart as we go on, but any time you get a league win on the road it's huge. "Hopewell is a very good team and will be right there with anyone in our league with their size and the way they can shoot. They didn't shoot it that well tonight, but they have three or four shooters that can knock down shots any night, so you have to ready for those guys at all times."