Stockaders pull away from rival Senecas, now have 2-game lead in SBC River

OLD FORT – The first matchup this season between Old Fort and Calvert came down to a buzzer-beater. The second matchup Friday night – did not.The Senecas battled and remained within striking distance the whole game, but couldn't quite get over the hump as they fell to the Stockaders, 66-53.Old Fort (11-1, 10-0 SBC River) ended the first half well, outscoring Calvert 16-9 in the second period and then also ended the game well with a 24-14 fourth to pull away down the stretch.Old Fort forced some Calvert turnovers at crucial times, and the Stockaders hit the offensive glass with some demoralizing second-chance points when Calvert tried to mount a comeback and take a lead."We talked about it after the game and before the game, we limit some of their second-chance opportunities and a couple forced turnovers there didn't cost us the game it was the miscues in the first half and us losing their shooters for wide-open threes," Senecas coach Jon Otterbacher said. "We didn't hold our box-outs, so they would get it back and then hit a wide-open 3 … every time it seemed like we missed an easy layup, we'd give up one at the other end. "They did a great job offensively and defensively. I thought we got good looks, but didn't finish a lot of them. Our posts played extremely hard but just couldn't put the ball in the basket enough. We knew a lot of what they were going to do tonight, but we couldn't get the job done at the end of the day."Calvert (10-3, 8-2) came out swinging with some big 3-point shots early – two from Grady Otterbacher. He dropped in eight points in the opening period, while Old Fort's Ryan Adelsperger, who ended with a game-high 25 points and 11 rebounds – had seven.Calvert led 15-13 after one, but Old Fort grabbed the momentum in the second with an 11-5 spurt to grab a 24-20 advantage late in the half.Grant Havens drained a pair of triples in the second quarter and Adelsperger dropped in a pair of free throws as time expired.Calvert got to within 42-39 after three quarters, but after Logan DeMoss made the opening layup of the fourth quarter at the 7:25 mark, the Senecas didn't score another basket until 19.3 ticks left in the game on an Otterbacher trey.Between that, Isaac Gallagher made a few big shots for Old Fort as he tallied eight of his 12 points in the fourth and OF went 13 of 13 at the foul line to close it out.One of the big keys for Old Fort's defense was limiting Calvert big Gavin Wagner – he ended with just 10 points."The focus has got to be Wagner. He's a dominant player, you have to focus there if you're playing them," Old Fort coach Eric Hoover said. "We know we're gonna give up some 3s, I wish they wouldn't of made as many (7 total), but you're gonna give some up. It would be easy to panic a little bit there in that first when they were making which seemed like every one they took, but we had to stick with it and adjust. The adjusted and made things tougher."We had some great hustle plays and offensive rebounds. We had guys running after those and Tyson (Frisch) made a great save on a ball that was heading out of bounds to save us a possession … we did a better job staying under control when they were pressuring at the end of the game. Everybody that came in did great things for us and had great minutes for us. It certainly was an all-around team effort tonight, but then the seniors went to the line at the end and put it away."Logan Ritzler paced the Senecas with 18 points, while Otterbacher backed him with 17. Now two games back of the Stockaders, a shot at the SBC River title is dwindling, but the Senecas will have to bounce back."We know we're now two games back with the second-half of the league play to go and we don't play them again and won't see them again until the district semifinals or final, so we have to handle our business just like they will and then hopefully we see them again in the tournament for another good battle," coach Otterbacher said. With eight league games left, the Stockaders are still unbeaten and sitting in prime position to win a league title. But the job is far from over."We have to keep plugging away here," Hoover said. "We have to continue to improve, we can't be satisfied after tonight. We have eight games left, and we have one (tonight). We can celebrate tonight, but St. Mary's played us tough the first time and it's a tough place to play over there also, and especially on a back-to-back, so we'll have to be mentally ready to go." Old Fort 66, Calvert 53Calvert (10-3, 8-2 SBC River): Logan Ritzler 5-6-18; Logan DeMoss 1-0-2; Grady Otterbacher 6-0-17; John Schumacher 0-0-0; Carter Wolph 2-2-6; Gavin Wagner 4-2-10; Vincenzo Lyons 0-0-0. Totals: 18-10-53.Old Fort (11-1, 10-0): Griffin Miller 2-2-7; Tyson Frisch 2-0-4; Isaac Gallagher 4-2-12; Grant Havens 2-0-6; Dimitri Carter 2-0-6; Ryan Adelsperger 7-9-25; Brock Miller 1-4-6. Totals: 10-17-66.Calvert&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;15&emsp;&emsp;9&emsp;&emsp;15&emsp;&emsp;14&emsp;&emsp;– 53Old Fort&emsp;&emsp;13&emsp;&emsp;16&emsp;&emsp;13&emsp;&emsp;24&emsp;&emsp;– 663-point goals: Calvert 7 (Otterbacher 5, Ritzler 2); Old Fort 9 (Gallagher 2, Havens 2, Carter 2, Adelsperger 2, G. Miller)Foul shots: Calvert 10-11; Old Fort 17-20.Turnovers: Calvert 14; Old Fort 10