Polar Bears pull away from Senecas

After winning its last two games, Calvert was hoping that it could hand Margaretta another defeat.Chants of "overrated" from the student section were silenced in the second half by slam dunks.Margaretta defeated Calvert 70-49 in Sandusky Bay Conference crossover play on Saturday."I think our guys battled hard and they always bust their tails at all times," Senecas coach Jon Otterbacher said. "But I think we need to become more disciplined, offensively, defensively and effort wise in order to be the type of team that we want to be."Calvert (3-3) had the advantage at the start, keeping Margaretta (10-1) under 35 points in the first half, but once the Polar Bears awoke from their slumber in the second half, there was no stopping them.A Logan Ritzler triple from the right side of the arc interrupted the Polars Bears six-point run in the first quarter.A little later, Logan DeMoss splashed in a basket, and a possession later, Ritzler scored a bucket.The quarter ended with a steal by Kelygan Morris and put the Senecas behind 16-7."I think we were too uptight in the first quarter," Otterbacher said. "We had too many turnovers and they were uncharacteristic ones. They definitely capitalized on it."Calvert had nine turnovers in the first half, five of which were in the first quarter."Calvert had some spurts and made some tightly contested shots," Margaretta coach Steve Keller said. "They were four of five from the arc, so kudos to them. I liked how we kept grinding and we just separated ourselves in the second half."Four of those five 3s came in the second quarter.It's where the Senecas sliced the lead difference two times and scored 21 points.Ritzler opened the second quarter with a trey, and after an exchange of six points between teams, DeMoss canned a triple to slice the lead from eight points down to five, 20-15.Vincenzo Lyons threw in a bucket, but was fouled by the Polar Bears, and made a trip to the charity stripe. He split his pair turning a basket into a two plus one.Max Herbert sliced the lead down 24-21 by canning a triple, and a little later, Ritzler canned a triple, bringing the Senecas within striking distance at 26-24.That was the closest that Calvert ever got in the game.The Polar Bears used a 6-4 run to get to 33-28 by the half.In the first half, University of Dayton commit Julian Washington was only able to get seven points on the board. Calvert contained him to 18 points all night."As long as we kept Julian in the front and played solid defense, that is how we contained Washington," Otterbacher said. "As long as he couldn't make jumpshots and we kept him contained in the middle, then we stopped him from being able to get to those 20 points. A lot of his shots are known to be in transition and not in half court but full court."The second half is what put the game out of reach for the Senecas. Margaretta scored 37 points in that half, while Calvert was held to 21 points for the remainder of the game.Morris opened the quarter by canning a triple, but Grady Otterbacher responded with a bucket, making it 36-30.Halfway through the quarter, Washington decided to make a run of his own and turned a basket into three points when he split his pair at the charity stripe. Washington read the court and turned two turnovers into four points and slam dunks."If you are able to hold him (Washington) under 20 points then you have done a great job. He is an elite athlete," Otterbacher said.With 4:25 left on the clock, the Senecas needed to respond. That response came from Ritzler as he splashed a basket in.Margaretta then went on a 6-2 run as Judah Keller, Kale Bailey, and Tyson Bailey all sank buckets.It was 53-34 at the end of the third quarter."They were able to capitalize on our turnovers and foul trouble," Otterbacher said. "They turned them into quick buckets and two possessions, easy layups and that's how a game gets away from you really quickly."The fourth quarter was all Polar Bears for the most part.The last five points of the game came from Calvert as Tucker Coleman split his pair at the free throw line at the 1:38 mark, Gabe Badik scored on a putback and Jacob Rishty scored on his pair of free throws.The leading scorer was Ritzler with 19 points. Otterbacher led Calvert in rebounds with 12.