Bulldogs Best Senecas in opener

For having just five practices and one scrimmage, Columbus Grove didn't look to shabby Friday night on the road at Calvert. In a highly competitive opener for both teams, the Bulldogs started to pull away late as Landon Best dropped in 20 of his game-high 29 points in the second half as Columbus Grove handled the Senecas 68-57."So yeah, we've been pretty limited on being in the gym preparing for the season, but we got a lot of good athletes here and Landon played really really well," Bulldogs coach Connor Kohls said. "I was happy he started making shots because he wasn't in the first half and you could tell he was getting frustrated. Good to see the ball go in and when it did it was like an ocean and he was confident, which he should be because he's a really good player."The game was tight throughout the first three quarters as CG (1-0) led 14-13 after the opening quarter as Gage Sautter and Logan Ritzler traded 3-pointers to end the quarter. Calvert (0-1) tried to pull away late in the half, but the Bulldogs wouldn't go away as they tied the game at 30 at the half after Calvert took a 30-26 advantage after a Vincenzo Lyons layup.Best drilled a triple right before the halftime buzzer that might've got the 6-0 senior going."I don't think we did a very good job realizing as a team that Columbus Grove was that athletic. Very skilled, very deep, five or six guys that can get to the hole and score," Calvert coach Jon Otterbacher said. "We are the reasons we schedule these types of games to help prepare you for the end of the season. "We didn't do a good job of getting into a press break in the first half, we were just going through the motions and we had several turnovers because of it. Us as coaches need to make sure we do those things right and a big principle that we preach day in and day out is taking care of the ball and on the defensive end, making sure the other team has straight-line drives. We did not do a good job of that at all. Out of their 68 points, I'd bet 15 of 16 of those layups they had were straight-line drives that we didn't do anything to slow them down."Even with Best heating up from midrange and deep, Calvert started to flow on offense, finding the open man for easy looks that amounted to a quick 9-0 burst to take a 47-42 lead late in the third.But CG finished the third period on an 8-0 spurt to grab a lead it never relinquished.An 8-1 run midway through the fourth iced the contest."We have a long way to obviously, but we just need to get in the gym, get up some more shots and start finishing around the rim a little better," Kohls said. "We have to make free throws better. We just have to get our basketball legs under us, but we have a really good team, a lot of good athletes and we have a chance to put together a really good season, we just need to put together the pieces at the right time and get into shape pretty much."Trevon Baxter backed Best with 15 points for the Bulldogs, while Brady Basinger added 13 and Gage Sautter ended with 10.Ritzler paced the Senecas with 19 points as they were battling foul trouble for much of the second half. Lyons popped in 16 points and pulled down 12 rebounds and Max Herbert finished with 12 points."We just gotta be better with the IQ plays," Otterbacher said. "I think we had a lot of mental lapses tonight where a varsity player shouldn't be having those even against a big, physical team like Columbus Grove was." Columbus Grove 68, Calvert 57CG (1-0): Gavin Baxter 0-0-0; Brady Basinger 5-3-13; Gavin Barraza 0-0-0; Trevon Baxter 5-5-15; Jacob Williams 0-1-1; Landon Best 12-2-29; Gage Sautter 4-0-10. Totals: 26-11-68.Calvert (0-1): Grady Otterbacher 1-0-2; Logan Ritzler 5-7-19; Emman Moreno 0-0-0; Max Herbert 5-0-12; Tucker Coleman 1-0-2; Drew Meyer 1-0-2; Logan DeMoss 2-0-4; Conley Stull 0-0-0; Jacob Rishty 0-0-0; Gabe Badik 0-0-0; Vincenzo Lyons 6-4-16. Totals: 21-11-57.Columbus Grove&emsp;&emsp;14&emsp;&emsp;16&emsp;&emsp;20&emsp;&emsp;18&emsp;&emsp;– 68Calvert&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;13&emsp;&emsp;17&emsp;&emsp;17&emsp;&emsp;10&emsp;&emsp;– 573-point goals: Grove 5 (Best 3, Sautter 2); Calvert 4 (Ritzler 2, Herbert 2)Foul shots: Grove 11-18; Calvert 11-14Turnovers: Grove 15; Calvert 21