Chieftains grab 1st win, upending rival Senecas

BASCOM - Boxing out, rebounding and anticipating passes while not taking unnecessary shots were the key to success.Forcing turnovers helped as well.Hopewell-Loudon ended its losing streak on Tuesday when it hosted rival Calvert at home.The Chieftains won their first game of the season 34-28 over the Senecas in Sandusky Bay Conference River Division action.It was a game that had been rescheduled due to H-L's deep run to the state football playoffs."We needed this tonight," Chieftains coach Eric Brickman said. "We know that they are very good and they are picked to be top in the league. It's awesome because it's a rivalry and it's been the talk."H-L (1-3, 1-0 SBC) came in with one thing on its minds which was to win and the fourth quarter is when it sealed the deal against the Senecas (0-1, 0-1)."It was a back-and-forth game tonight," Calvert coach Aaron Sheets said. "I called a timeout in the fourth quarter and we came back and had the lead by two, but a couple of mistakes defensively and we got outrebounded, had a lot of turnovers, and didn't play a very good game tonight."Before Sheets called a timeout, Mya Steyer and Megan Rombach knocked down a triple a piece, and made it 24-22."When the game got close and they hit those couple of 3's, all I can say was: 'Oh no,'" Brickman said. "But I sat them down and reminded them that we are going to do this and finish what we started. The girls responded with aggressiveness, attacking the rim, and broke their press."Coming out of that timeout, Rombach had back-to-back baskets that made it tip temporarily in the Senecas favor, 26-24, but it wouldn't stay that way."It was literally just one person who wasn't in the right spot," Sheets said. "H-L hit the ball to the middle, then they hit the back door and made a layup."With 1:31 left in the fourth quarter and needing to break the tie, Karsyn Snyder knocked down a basket, and after a turnover from Calvert, Peyton Wildhart scored a bucket, making it 28-26.The Chieftains extended their lead when Snyder was at the free throw line, with a 1:16 left on the clock, and split the pair.Less than a minute later and another turnover later, Savanna Cook scored on a layup.It took 30 seconds for Calvert to put two points on the board courtesy of Steyer.Then, the luck turned bad for the Senecas. As Snyder was racing towards the hoop, Rombach fouled out of the game – the second player for the Senecas late in the game.With seven seconds left, Snyder split the first set of free throws she had. Four seconds later, she was back at the charity stripe and made the pair.The game didn't initially start that way. Except for one bucket by Lily Brickner, it was Calvert that had the lead 5-2.H-L and Calvert traded points back and forth until the three-minute mark on the clock for the first half when Cook tied the game at 9, and Snyder split a pair at the charity stripe.The Chieftains held onto the lead courtesy of Cook's basket as time ticked below a minute to go and the tough defense of H-L. At the half, H-L had a one point lead over Calvert 12-11.Kara Wyman was part of that defense. While not known for scoring, she was critical in the victory for the Chieftains."She has a lot of energy," Brickner said. "She was boxing out, getting loose balls, and getting steals. She didn't score, but she knew she could impact the game."In the third quarter, after a H-L foul, Kaleigh Concepcion found herself at the line after making a basket, which tied the game at 14. A basket from Carleigh Meier helped out and allowed the Senecas to take the lead.But not for long. Snyder took advantage of turnovers, steals, and rebounds, and went on a six-point run to make it 20-16 and drained the clock down to 18.7 seconds. Wildhart got the final bucket that quarter, making it 22-16 for the Chieftains.Each team ended the game with 22 turnovers. Snyder was the leading scorer of the game with 17 points and 10 rebounds. Top scorer for the Senecas was Rombach with nine points, and nine rebounds.Next up for the Chieftains is taking on Woodmore."We go into the week with Calvert, Woodmore, and Arcadia. All very good teams," Brickman said. "We will get back at it, we will look at Woodmore tomorrow. We are going to go out and play hard and try to play hard and improve. We went back and worked on some fundamentals and it paid off." Hopewell-Loudon 34, Calvert 28Calvert (0-1): Kaleigh Concepcion 2-1-5, Megan Rombach 2-2-9, Carleigh Meier 2-0-4, Kate Coleman 1-1-3, Mya Steyer 1-2-7 TOTALS: 8-6-28Hopewell-Loudon (1-3): Peyton Wildhart 2-0-4, Savanna Cook 2-2-6, Lily Brickner 1-2-4, Mylie Alt 0-0-3 Karsyn Synder 6-5-17 TOTALS: 13-9-34Calvert 5-6-5-12-28H-L 2-10-10-12-343-point shots: Calvert 2 (Rombach, Steyer); H-L 1 (Alt)