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Jerry Sigler has been around
basketball for so long and has witnessed so much,
that only something fairly remarkable could surprise
him.
The play of his Northview girls in
last night's 62-36 season opening win at Perrysburg
might qualify as fairly remarkable. Perrysburg
looked like many teams look on opening night,
missing makeable shots and too often turning over
possessions. Northview, oppositely, executed crisply
and scored in a multitude of ways with a multitude
of players.
Sigler didn't see it coming.
"No, not at all," the 34th-year
coach said. "Our scrimmage schedule was pretty
competitive and we faced some pretty good teams. We
felt like we were ready but you never know on the
first night."
It was Perrysburg's first Northern
Lakes League loss in two seasons. The Yellow
Jackets, 24-1 last year, were picked second behind
Northview in the NLL preseason poll but must replace
four starters and coach Mark Schrock, who resigned
for personal reasons.
"They were definitely better than
us tonight," said coach Todd Sims, who served under
Schrock. "In the third quarter they shot the ball
really well. We were down nine [points] at halftime,
so the third quarter is when we'd like to make a
run."
Northview blew open a 25-16
halftime lead with a pair of 3-pointers by sophomore
Miriam Justinger and another by sophomore Skylar
Rose to make the score 40-23. A third sophomore, J.J.
Jessing added six points in the quarter, which ended
with the Wildcats ahead 43-25. For the game,
Northview converted 23 of 48 shots (48 percent).
"I didn't think it would be
anything like it was tonight," Sigler said. "The
sophomores really came in and did a tremendous job."
Rose hit three 3-pointers and
finished with a game-high 13 points, while Justinger
tallied 12 and Jessing 11. Hannah Small added nine
points and Katelynn McCoy poured in eight.
Five Wildcats outscored team
leader Olivia Fouty, who averaged 15.7 points a year
ago but was held to seven last night.
"We knew that Olivia was going to
get triple teamed, and we had to help her out,"
Jessing said. "We had to get open and take shots."
Sigler hopes this shared wealth is
a trend because he doesn't believe his team is at
its best when Fouty doesn't have teammates who chip
in. "We preached to the kids all week long that if
we could get scoring out of other people we thought
we could beat them," Sigler said.
Sophomore Kelsea Newman connected
on both of Perrysburg's 3-pointers and led the team
with 10 points. Senior center Erin Mesker and
freshman forward Nicole Delas added eight points
apiece.
Much because of seven turnovers,
the Yellow Jackets trailed 10-4 entering the second
period. Their play progressively got cleaner as they
committed just three turnovers the rest of the way.
But the Wildcats were too strong, punching it inside
with their posts and knocking down jumpers from
everywhere else, including six of 11 attempts from
beyond the arc.
"You would like to think with
their size, [outside shooting] would be one of their
weaknesses," Sims said. "Obviously it wasn't one of
their weaknesses tonight, and I don't think it will
be."
Sigler said junior Valerie Sohasky,
who did not return after injuring her ankle in the
first quarter, is fine but he does not know when she
will return.
Contact Ryan Autullo at:
rautullo@theblade.com
or 419-724-6160. |
