Hot shooting leads Blue Jackets to 2-0 start

NEW RIEGEL — New Riegel coach Dave Losey wasn't particularly fond of the first five minutes of Friday's game."We came out in a zone and tried to get the ball out of (Danbury senior Tyler) Harris' hands a little bit," Losey said. "All we really did was get ourselves out of position on the glass and they got some open looks. As soon as we got back into man, we stayed in front and stayed disciplined. We made them take some longer contested shots and were able to get into a flow offensively too."A flow offensively is a nice way to put it.The Blue Jackets shot better than 75% from the field in the first three quarters, cruising to an 80-36 Sandusky Bay Conference River Division win over Danbury."We were really unselfish," Losey said. "Danbury takes a lot of chances. They pressure the whole game. I thought we did a nice job of moving the ball to the open guy. The ball wasn't sticking. When that happens, good things happen."Danbury controlled the pace of the play early on. Consecutive scores by Frankie Kovach, Elijah Hatfield and Harris gave the Lakers a 13-9 lead and forced the Blue Jackets (2-0, 2-0 SBC River) into a timeout.That quickly changed the course of action. New Riegel — despite turnover woes — kicked its play into a higher gear. The Blue Jackets ripped off eight straight points in just 43 seconds to go up 17-13.Kovach scored for Danbury (1-2, 0-2), but New Riegel added a 10-4 run — capped on buckets by Reese Goshe and Brody Hohman — over the final 1:24 to lead 27-19 after eight minutes."We didn't score," Danbury coach Keith Diebler said. "When you don't score, you can't get into what you do best. I knew coming into this game that they're a veteran team and a very good team. Our margin of error during the game becomes less and less."New Riegel had nine first-quarter turnovers, yet led."They're experienced and if we got behind, their confidence would grow," Diebler said. "That's exactly what happened."New Riegel continued to play well in the second quarter. Hohman scored before a triple by Shane Jones and tallies by Goshe and Carson Pahl pushed the Blue Jackets' lead to 36-19. New Riegel was able to get to the rim with ease, scoring layup after layup behind the Danbury defense.On the other end, the Lakers struggled from deep. Clark made the Lakers' first shot of the game from 3, but Danbury missed all 18 3-pointers it attempted after that."They obviously take a lot of long 3s, but we wanted to step out and guard at 25 feet and always make sure we had hands up there," Losey said. "They're going to shoot a lot, but as long as you contest and keep good position inside, you'll get the rebounds."That allowed the New Riegel offense to flow freely and deeply. All 10 players the Blue Jackets dressed not only played significant minutes in the first half, but all 10 scored at least one field goal."They were all big contributors too," Losey said. "It wasn't any small contributions out there. We had rebounders and guys with six assists in the first half, I believe. We knew that coming in — we had 10 guys that could play. It wasn't necessarily like there was a first five and second five. It was 10 that could get out there and get the job done."The Blue Jackets finished the half strong with an 11-2 run over the final 2:40. New Riegel continued the run with a 23-2 edge in the third quarter, holding Danbury without a field goal in the period.New Riegel controlled the boards, getting numerous extra chances to tally up points. The Blue Jackets out-rebounded Danbury 41-22. Alec Hohman had a game-high eight rebounds while Aiden Faeth grabbed seven. Brody Hohman and Mathew Flores each added six boards."We didn't rebound real well against Woodmore earlier this week," Losey said. "We focused on getting five to the glass. We really pride ourselves in being good on the glass. It was nice to have a bounce back game there."Kovach paced the Lakers with 16 points. Danbury made just 13 of 53 field goals while committing 16 turnovers."We're going to look at films (Saturday) and lift weights," Diebler said. "I told them it's about where we're at at the end of the year. This is a young team and we're not going to be like this at the end of the year."Jones topped New Riegel with 16 points while Goshe added 14. Brody Hohman and Flores each added 11 points for the Blue Jackets, who travel to Gibsonburg next on Thursday."We have a really athletic team," Losey said. "We have a group of guys on this team that get along real well. When you have good chemistry, good things are going to happen. We just hope to game by game keep building on that and keep strengthening those walls." New Riegel 80, Danbury 37Danbury (1-2, 0-2): Gavin Clark 2-0-5; Frankie Kovach 5-6-16; Tyler Harris 3-2-8; Elijah Hatfield 2-2-6; Ethan Hoffman 0-0-0; Logan Borgio 1-0-2. Totals: 13-10-37.New Riegel (2-0, 2-0): Carson Pahl 1-0-2; Brody Hohman 5-1-11; Mathew Flores 4-1-11; Shane Jones 7-0-16; Reese Goshe 7-0-14; Jayden Nye 3-1-7; Aiden Faeth 2-1-5; Alec Hohman 3-0-7; Jory Hanna 2-0-4; Carter Clouse 1-1-3. Totals: 35-5-80.Danbury 19 6 2 10 — 37New Riegel 27 28 23 2 — 80Field goals: Danbury 13-53; New Riegel 35-53.3-point goals: Danbury 1-19 (Clark); New Riegel 5-11 (Flores 2, Jones 2, A. Hohman).Foul shots: Danbury 10-14; New Riegel 5-11.Rebounds: Danbury 22 (Hatfield 5); New Riegel 41 (A. Hohman 8).Turnovers: Danbury 16; New Riegel 20.