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Turnovers cost DHS against Wauseon

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By JASON STEIN

cnsports@crescent-news.com

Defiance and Wauseon made it an offensive race in the early goings of their Monday night matchup. In the end, however, too many Bulldog turnovers against an Indians' defense that stepped up the pressure led to a 65-58 road win for the Northwest Ohio Athletic League representative.

Defiance showed more hustle throughout most of the first three quarters of play but 21 Bulldog turnovers, especially 14 in the second half, caught up with the blue-and-white as their counterpart committed just nine for the game.

"We play a little bit on the verge of out of control and a lot of times our passes don't get through," said Defiance head coach Amy Unverferth after her team fell to 3-7 at the midway-point of the season. "Tonight there were a lot of travels and we just don't do a good job of seeing the defense. (Wauseon) moved well and got into the passing lanes and were there when they needed to be there."

Wauseon shot 17-for-26 in the first half led by Brittany Gibson, who scored 12 of her team-high 14 points in the first 16 minutes. But the Wauseon defense struggled to stop Defiance's offense, which hustled to grab almost every loose ball and scored seven points on offensive rebounds midway through the first quarter.

The Indians' defense finally started to match Defiance's hustle in the second half, but the offense failed to capitalize.

After Kiersten Lehman and Gabby Gonzales scored on back-to-back possessions for the Bulldogs, answered only by a pair of Taylor Creager free throws, the score was 43-36 in the visitor's favor with 5:57 remaining in the third quarter.

On Defiance's next four possessions, a pressing Wauseon squad generated three steals and forced a 10-second violation in less than a minute's time. However, the Indians' offense, which shot 3-for-11 in the quarter, managed to put only three more points on the scoreboard, leaving what could have been an even bigger margin at just 10 points, 46-36.

"I thought just the intensity level in the second half was the difference," said Wauseon mentor Brad Myers of the differences in the halves. "Give Defiance credit, they came out and shot well, they executed well and moved the ball well offensively. Defensively we came out a little bit harder and were able to put a little bit more pressure on them. We got some key points there where we got some turnovers but weren't able to convert them and they were able to make a run and get back in it, which you have to give them credit."

Lehman and Mikaela Tolbert helped Defiance rebound from the four turnovers by scoring nine straight Defiance points, capped off when Tolbert found Lehman underneath for an easy bucket despite being fouled. Lehman completed the three-point play and Defiance clawed back to within one, 46-45, with two minutes left in the third.

Defiance, however, committed two more turnovers to end the third and added two more to open the fourth quarter as the offense continued its up-and-down night.

"We're not really patient," admitted Unverferth on her team's streaky offense. "Sometime the lanes are there and we don't take it, but most of the time we try to penetrate into help defense and that's where we lose the ball, or we don't jump stop when we penetrate and we lose the ball there. Offensively tonight it wasn't the best game as far as our decision making."

Sabrina Kessler hit an early fourth-quarter free throw and Baird made a driving bucket to put Wauseon up 51-45 early in the fourth. But the Indians failed to score over the next three minutes of action, although they did add three more inside buckets later in the quarter.

The Bulldogs managed to score four points during the Wauseon drought with a pair of Lehman free throws and an Anna Schrag short-range shot mixed in with three more turnovers.

With the score 53-51 after Gonzales made a pair from the line with 4:24 showing on the clock, the Indians scored the next five points, four following the final two DHS turnovers. Then the Indians shot 5-for-7 from the free throw line, forcing Defiance to foul to put the game away.

Creager scored 11 points for Wauseon and Chloe Stiriz and Baird each added 10 points as the Indians finished with four players in double-digits and another (Kessler) with nine points.

"That's huge, I don't think anyone can key on one person," Myers said of the balanced scoring. "We have had that all year, different people contributing. We had some good bench play, people came in and gave us good minutes offensively and defensively.

"I think we had a little bit more inside presence this year than we've had in the past. They were playing us zone for a while and spreading it out and we were able to get into the interior of the zone instead of just settling for perimeter shots and that was really key."

Tolbert scored 16 points and added nine rebounds for the Bulldogs, who outrebounded Wauseon 31-20, but in the end were unable to overcome the mistakes.

"I thought tonight we did a better job rebounding than we have in the past," concluded Unverferth. "That really helped not letting them have second shots and it all goes down to every game we play really hard, we just aren't able to put a full game together, we're not there 110-percent mentally."

BOX SCORE

WAUSEON (65) - Gibson 14; Creager 11; C. Stiriz 10; Baird 10; Kessler 9; Garvin 4; Lovins 4; Price 3; P. Stiriz 0; Shaw 0. Totals 24-47 16-22 65.

DEFIANCE (58) - Lehman 21; Tolbert 16; Riedel 9; Gonzales 8; Schrag 2; Tumblin 2; Hoellrich 0. Totals 21-46 13-16 58.

Three-point goals: Wauseon - Creager. Defiance - Gonzales, Lehman, Riedel. Rebounds: Wauseon 20, Defiance 31 (Tolbert 9, Lehman 7). Turnovers: Wauseon 9, Defiance 21.

Wauseon 15 22 11 17 - 65

Defiance 19 13 13 13 - 58

Reserves: Wauseon, 36-23.