Tornadoes battle Generals, but fall short

Digging holes has been an ongoing problem for Columbian, but tried as it might, it couldn't get themselves out of this one. Anthony Wayne (13-4) came into Tiffin and rode out with the victory 62-49 in non-conference play. Columbian is now 9-12 on the season, and lost its second straight game. The last time the teams met was on Feb. 6th, 2024 and the Generals had taken the victory as well 59-55. "Everybody in our locker room had full confidence that we would win tonight," TC coach Ryan Fretz said. "Now, that didn't show in the first four minutes of the game, and I had to remind the boys of that, but I believe that we played with one of the best teams in the Northwest area. To be doing that in the second to last week of the season, especially with Sandusky coming Friday, I'm happy with that." After AW's Blake Robinson scored a basket, he drew a foul from DaShawn Russell, and took a shot at a bonus point, but missed. From there, Russell ended up at the charity stripe with 56 seconds left in the third quarter, he sank both of his free throws. TC sliced the lead down 44-42, but that was the closest that the teams would ever get, and the Tornadoes never took the lead the entire game. "We had to extend our defense a little bit," Fretz said. "We had to compact our defense and about as much as we could with a handful of their shooters as long as we didn't foul and close out. Having to extend our defense, with that big of a lead, gave them a chance to knock down some free throws and cash in at the end " The last free throws of the night came with 42 seconds left, and Jaythan Voltz knocked down both shots. "When it's a two possession game, three possession game, we have to foul to lengthen the game out," Fretz said. "We were hoping that they would miss the free throw at the end, and that didn't happen tonight." The highest scoring quarter for the Tornadoes was the second quarter. To open the quarter, Zach Shawberry sank both free throws with a little over two minutes in. Robinson responded back when less than a minute later, he was at the line shooting three free throws, only missing one out of the three on that attempt. A little later in the quarter, TC went on a small run of 5-0 when Nolan Miller made a trey and then Mitch Stephey made both of his free throws. The Tornadoes had another 5-0 run when Logan Smith scored a bucket with 50 seconds left, and Miller made another 3-pointer with 27 seconds left. At the half, the Generals were leading 32-25. "I thought we had plenty of opportunities tonight, and that's what I told the guys," Fretz said. "Our hands were on the basketball, but we didn't get the rebound. We had shooters with open shots. We had shots around the basket that were open shots that our guys normally take. They took those shots, that means they were executing against a good team. We just couldn't capitalize and that made the difference tonight." The Generals took the early lead in the game, going on a 6-0 run within the first minute of gameplay. Logan Gooding got the first 3-pointer of the game and three points on the board for TC. Then, Cole Bidenharn swished a basket. There was a seven-point difference by that point. AW went on another run, this time 7-0 before Shawberry got his hands on the ball with three minutes left in the quarter. The final basket of the quarter came from Smith. The high scorer for the Tornadoes was Shawberry with 10 points, while for the Generals, it was Robinson hitting double digits at 21, Zane Kudzia with 19 points, and Bidenharn with eight points. With Sandusky coming to town on Friday, and having lost to them once on Jan. 3rd, Fretz knows that he will have to prep the team and make sure they capitalize on every opportunity they can get. Sandusky is currently 11-6, and was defeated last week by Perkins, which kept Bellevue in the running for the Sandusky Bay Conference Lake Division title. "Getting open looks," Fretz said. "We know that we are going to have opportunities against Sandusky. If we keep our eyes on those opportunities, then we know that we put ourselves in a really good position against Sandusky to be able to beat them." Anthony Wayne 62 Columbian 49 AW (13-4): Zane Kudzia 7-2-19 Blake Robinson 7-7-21 Mason Taylor 3-0-6 Jackson Urenovitch 1-0-2, Jaythan Voltz 0-4-4 Cole Gast 1-0-2 Cole Bidenharn 3-2-8 Totals: 22-15-62 TC (9-12): Owen Hickey 3-0-6 Zach Shawberry 4-2-10 Mitch Stephey 1-2-4 Logan Gooding 3-0-9, DaShawn Russell 1-3-6 Nolan Miller 2-0-6 Logan Smith 3-0-6 Bradley Willman 1-0-2 Totals: 18-7-49 AW 14-18-15-18-62 TC 9-16-15-9-49 3 point goals: AW 3 (Kudzia 3) TC 6 (Gooding 3, Russell 1, Miller 2) Foul Shots: AW 15-18 TC 7-8