Senecas pull away from Blue Jackets

So far this season, Calvert has had trouble in second halves and finishing games. With how young the Senecas are, that part of the game will come with more experience. It showed up Thursday night in a big way. The Senecas led rival New Riegel 32-31 after three quarters, but then dominated the fourth period 16-4 to pull out a 48-35 Sandusky Bay Conference River Division victory.First-year coach Aaron Sheets made a change to the starting lineup, sending sophomore guard Kaleigh Concepcion to JV and to come off the bench in the varsity contest. He inserted freshman Kate Coleman into the starting 5. It was a good decision. Coleman and Concepcion combined to score 26 points to help out Alyssa Rishty offensively. "We tried something different. I put Coleman into the lineup because her efficiency has been so high this season," Sheets said. "I talked to both of them earlier today and I told Kaleigh that she was going down to JV, but to make of what she could because I just wanted to get her with a more positive feeling on offense. "I do believe that helped, she scored 14 tonight and that's the best she's played all year. She great in JV, and one time during my high school career, my junior year, my coach put me down to JV just to wake me up and told me to shoot more. I scored 18 points, but it was kind of the same thing like tonight. I think that gave a little bit of a spark to Kaleigh. That was her best game."Coleman paced the Senecas (4-5, 3-4 SBC River) at the beginning of the game with six points in the opening quarter and after a corner Concepcion 3-pointer, Calvert led 11-2. New Riegel's Ashlyn Bouillon completed a three-point play to end the quarter as NR trailed 13-5. Calvert continued to control the game and the scoreboard in the second quarter. Rishty dropped in six points in the quarter and Coleman drilled a triple to give the Senecas a 24-14 halftime edge. It seemed like Calvert was ahead more than just 10 with how the first half went. That 10-point advantage didn't last long out of the half as New Riegel (2-7, 2-5) stormed back.Alayna Schalk splashed a trey and Olivia Schalk made a layup for a quick 5-0 run, but Calvert pushed the lead back up to 28-19 in response after a Rishty layup and a Carleigh Meier basket in the third. But then Olivia Schalk got hot — like red hot — from deep. She drained three straight triples — the last one a heat check that banked in from well beyond the 3-point arc — to tie the game at 28 with 2:40 left in the third.Rishty regained the lead for Calvert with four straight points, but Olivia Schalk scored again on a putback and Katie Dryfuse split a pair of free throws to cut the Calvert lead to 32-31 heading to the fourth. The Blue Jackets missed a pair of free throws at the end of the third period and then missed several more in the fourth that were key to staying in the game. They ended just 6 of 17 at the charity stripe."When they made that run at the end there, they had four seniors on the floor and you just never know what's going to happen because Hopewell did the same thing to us," Sheets said. "Carley Coffman got hot and took control of the game, so I called a timeout tonight just to change some things up and told them to spread out a little more offensively. I knew there at the end we were a little quicker so we could take them one-on-one a little more to get them into foul trouble."We shot 74% (16-23) from the foul line. We're taking smarter shots and these are freshmen and sophomores making these decisions in crunch time and they're learning. These guys are way ahead of the game, which will definitely help us in the future."Rishty then took over a bit in the fourth to get Calvert a more comfortable lead, scoring five of the nine straight points to begin the fourth for the Senecas. She led the Senecas with 16 points. Olivia Schalk led everyone with 21 points for the Blue Jackets. Calvert 48, New Riegel 35New Riegel (2-7, 2-5 SBC River): Katie Dryfuse 1-1-3; Alayna Schalk 1-2-5; Jacqui Tiell 1-0-2; Ashlyn Bouillon 1-2-4; Maddie Faeth 0-0-0; Olivia Schalk 7-1-21; Cate Reinhart 1-0-2. Totals: 12-6-35.Calvert (4-5, 3-4): Kaleigh Concepcion 4-3-14; Alyssa Rishty 6-7-16; Breanna Ronski 0-0-0; Brooklyn Brown 0-0-0; Megan Rombach 0-1-1; Carleigh Meier 1-0-2; Kate Coleman 3-5-12. Totals: 14-16-48.New Riegel 5 9 17 4 — 35Calvert&emsp;&emsp;13 11 8 16 — 48Field goals: New Riegel 12; Calvert 14.3-point goals: New Riegel 5 (O. Schalk 4, A. Schalk); Calvert 3 (Concepcion 2, Coleman).Foul shots: New Riegel 6-17; Calvert 16-23.Turnovers: New Riegel 19; Calvert 14.