Ritzler, Senecas pull away from Blue Jackets late

NEW RIEGEL – Down the stretch, Calvert's defense answered the bell.In a back-and-forth contest all game, New Riegel was only able to score a single point in the final 6:12 of the game, which allowed Calvert to slowly pull away for a big 61-50 SBC River road win.After a lackluster win at home Tuesday night, coach Jon Otterbacher challenged his team. For much of the night Friday, the Senecas responded.New Riegel (4-5, 2-3 SBC River) got to its spots inside the paint in the first half, attacking with its bigs going to the rim and scoring. That, coupled with some big outside shots from Cameron Hohman had the Homecoming crowd rocking. However, Calvert adjusted and got some big defensive performances in the second half to limit the Blue Jackets' inside attack."They did a great job of exploiting our undersized posts. Vinny (Lyons) and Max (Herbert) are not true posts, but if they're going to help us out, then that's the best spot to do it at this point of the season," Otterbacher said. "Talking to them at halftime about getting through screens and being in the right position on help-side in the post, I think we slowed them down in the second half and took them out of their game. "They hit some big shots early with (Cameron) Hohman hitting two 3s in the first quarter and then (Brayden) Schalk hitting another one, which got them going, but then we finally decided to wake up a little bit and play solid defense."It was close throughout the first half as New Riegel led 17-13 late in the first quarter after an Aiden Faeth bucket, but a Logan DeMoss trey pulled Calvert to within 17-16 after the first stop.The Blue Jackets pushed their lead to 24-18 midway through the second after a 5-0 run from Schalk himself after a three-point play, but then DeMoss and company got to work with a n 11-3 run to end the half as Grady Otterbacher hit a fadeaway jumper just before the buzzer to give Calvert a 35-33 edge."Calvert did a great job in the second half adjusting to our big guys and not giving them any good looks," Blue Jackets coach Jordyn Jury said. "We've challenged our bigs on the offensive end and on the defensive end because there will be one of them most likely than will have to guard a non-traditional post, like a Lyons from Calvert. He's not bigger than our guy, but he does have great feet and moves well around the basket, so they have to get better and guard more than just the five spot. "We just have to continue to dictate and compete. We spend a lot of time on scout this week learning their sets and how we wanted to guard those actions, but there were a couple times we didn't hedge enough on a screen on (Logan) Ritzler than we should have or an action we were supposed to switch, but we had good spurts, but not enough to win. We have to challenge the guys to play a full 32 minutes without taking any minutes off."Ritzler began to assert himself in the third quarter with eight of his game-high 21 points in the period as Calvert raised its lead to 47-40 after an and-one from the senior guard. But Schalk responded with a triple and Ian Harnishfeger made a pair of free throws as time expired to get NR within 49-45 heading to the fourth.After scoring the first four points of the fourth, that was all the Blue Jackets could muster. In the meantime, Otterbacher drilled a 3-pointer with 3:33 left to stretch the lead to 56-49 and essentially put the game away.DeMoss had 17 points and six rebounds, while Lyons tallied 10 points and 17 boards and Otterbacher finished with seven points and five assists for the Senecas."Logan has done a tremendous job over the last week or week and a half of getting downhill and attacking the rim, getting baskets and also hitting perimeter jump shots," coach Otterbacher said. "Then Logan has been a three-year varsity player, so he's done a great job of scoring and leading … we just have to keep building around our core players and working to improve day in and day out."Hohman paced the Blue Jackets with 15 points, followed by Schalk with 13 and Faeth with 10."We've been challenging the boys to stack days, is what we call it. We have to get better tomorrow than we were tonight. We have to be better Monday than we are Saturday," Jury said. "Eventually we'll get to be where we're a really dangerous team." Calvert 61, New Riegel 50Calvert (5-3, 3-1 SBC River): Grady Otterbacher 3-0-7; Logan Ritzler 7-5-21; Emman Moreno 1-0-2; Max Herbert 1-0-2; Tucker Coleman 0-0-0; Drew Meyer 2-0-4; Logan DeMoss 6-3-17; Vincenzo Lyons 5-0-1. Totals: 22-8-61.New Riegel (4-5, 2-3): Quinn Allison 0-0-0; Alec Hohman 1-0-3; Aiden Faeth 4-2-10; Cameron Hohman 4-4-15; Brayden Schalk 5-1-13; Ian Harnishfeger 0-2-2; Sam Clouse 0-0-0; Owen Kummerer 3-1-7. Totals: 17-10-50.Calvert&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;16&emsp;&emsp;19&emsp;&emsp;14&emsp;&emsp;12&emsp;&emsp;– 61New Riegel&emsp;&emsp;17&emsp;&emsp;16&emsp;&emsp;12&emsp;&emsp;5&emsp;&emsp;– 503-point goals: Calvert 5 (Ritzler 2, DeMoss 2, Otterbacher); New Riegel 6 (C. Hohman 3, Schalk 2, A. Hohman)Foul shots: Calvert 8-16; New Riegel 10-18Turnovers: Calvert 12; New Riegel 4