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Another big night for Keel

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ROSSFORD-- Defiance rebounded from a disappointing overtime loss on Friday night with a 57-51 win at Rossford Saturday evening.

Trailing 26-21 three minutes into the third quarter, the Bulldogs outscored the hosts 13-2 the rest of the stanza to take a 34-28 advantage. A three-point play by Alex Keel put DHS on top to stay at 29-28 at the 2:55 mark and Defiance went on to score five more points in the quarter, three at the foul line and the other points on an Eric Stapleton jumper.

"Once they went up by five we proceeded the next three possessions to get good looks at the basket and made stops at the defensive end," noted DHS coach Kirk Lehman. "Nofs (Alex Nofziger) did a good job again on defense with some steals and we were able to find Alex (Keel) in the lane for some baskets. Craig (Gutman) also found him a couple times in transition."

Three fourth-quarter points by Tommy Kralovic kept Rossford close at 37-31, but a 3-ball by Curtis Parsons with 5:35 to play gave the visiting Bulldogs a 40-31 advantage.

"Curtis hit two big 3s, one in each half," Lehman said of Parsons, who finished with eight points. "Both were clutch shots and came at nice times, the first when we were struggling on offense and the second to help up our lead. Any kind of outside shooting we can get with the 3-ball is going to benefit our post players."

Rossford could get no closer than five points the rest of the way, the last at 48-43 with 1:08 to go. But Keel scored on a layup and Defiance then put the game out of reach at the foul line, where the Bulldogs were 21-of-26 on the night.

"Our defense tonight was real solid," said Lehman, whose team limited Rossford to just two points in the second quarter. "We challenged shooters and played tonight without fouling in the first half which was one of our focuses. We also did a good job of limiting them to one shot."

Keel, coming off a 27-point 10-rebound performance in an overtime loss to Elida on Friday, had 24 points and seven rebounds to pace Defiance.

"Alex was real solid offensively," Lehman explained. "We ask a lot of Alex and will continue to do so. When you have a guy like that I sometimes magnify lapses on defense but what a weekend he had taking the ball to the basket and he was really hitting his mid-range shots. It was also one of his better rebounding weekends. It's nice to see him play with that kind of confidence and determination. That carries over to the other guys on the team."

DHS, which played the game without Steve Hammersmith who was out with a hip injury, is now 12-6 on the season with Lima Bath up next on Friday in the home finale.

"We were concerned how we would be emotionally tonight," Lehman admitted in reference to Friday's overtime defeat. "We didn't play great in the first half but we played smart, especially at the defensive end. We were not real sharp offensively but we were defensively against a good perimeter team."

Rossford, which came into the weekend averaging almost 68 points per game, was held to its third lowest point total of the season in falling to 8-10.

BOX SCORE

DEFIANCE (57) - T. Keel 6; Nofziger 4; A. Keel 24; Gutman 1; Stapleton 2; Beverly 6; Spitnale 0; Parsons 8; Kime 6. Totals 17-37 21-26 57.

ROSSFORD (51) - Ty. Kralovic 10; Leahy 14; To. Kralovic 17; Clayton 0; Hoover 6; Kanary 1; Reitz 1; Stewart 2. Totals 16-14-51.

Three-point goals: Defiance - Parsons 2. Rossford - Leahy, Ty. Kralovic 2, To. Kralovic 2. Rebounds: Defiance 29 (A. Keel 7), Rossford 24. Turnovers: Defiance 13, Rossford 18.

Defiance 8 9 17 23 - 57

Rossford 14 2 12 23 - 51

Reserves: Defiance, 40-32.