PERRYSBURG – Perrysburg’s boys had little trouble with Anthony Wayne Saturday night.
The Yellow Jackets controlled play from the outset and cruised to a 66-41 Northern Lakes League victory.
Junior forward Jake Pfleghaar had a game-high 21 points and senior guard Karter Sell added 15 points and
four steals as Perrysburg improved to 6-4 overall and 5-1 in the NLL. The ‘Jackets are in second place
in the league standings, one game behind Bowling Green.
AW dropped to 2-7, 1-5.
"We had good defensive pressure early. We moved the ball well against the zone and that enabled us
to get the lead," Perrysburg coach Dave Boyce said. "They missed a few shots that really they
could have made in the second quarter and it could have been a different game."
Although AW 6-foot-8 sophomore center Mark Donnal finished with a double-double of 20 points and 10
rebounds to go along with four blocks, Perrysburg limited the Generals’ other scorers to just 21 points
in the game.
"Donnal is a load. You’ve got to keep adjusting to their adjustments to figure out how to stop
him," Boyce said.
"It was definitely part of the gameplan. We knew (Donnal) was their strongest offensive player so we
wanted to shut him down, or try to at least," Sell said.
Perrysburg jumped out to an 11-2 lead after an Alec Schmenk basket at the 4:35 mark of the first quarter.
Donnal scored all eight of AW’s points as the ‘Jackets held a 15-8 lead through eight minutes.
The ‘Jackets then pushed their lead to 27-14 at halftime, forcing the Generals into 11 turnovers and a
5-of-21 (24 percent) shooting performance from the field in the first half.
Pfleghaar had 13 points in the first half as Perrysburg shot 13-of-25 (52 percent) in the first 16
minutes.
"Early, he made some tough shots," said Boyce of Pfleghaar. "He made some high degree of
difficult shots. And then later when we got a lead, some things opened up for him. We passed the ball
well, we put the passes in places where he could make a move."
In the third quarter it was the Sell show, as the guard scored eight straight points and finished with 11
points in the quarter. Perrysburg out-scored the Generals 33-15 over the middle two quarters to take a
48-23 into the fourth.
"We didn’t make a three in the first half," Boyce said. "In the third quarter, we came out
and Karter Sell had a really good third quarter and in general our defensive pressure was pretty good
and we were able to stretch the lead out."
AW finished with 18 turnovers compared to Perrysburg’s 10. The Generals went 0-for-10 from 3-point range
for the game while Perrysburg connected on 6-of-13 triples in the second half.
Pfleghaar was the beneficiary of some nice passing out of Perrysburg’s offense, while battling against
AW’s 2-3 zone.
"I’m just working hard in practice, working on my post moves, trying to finish strong and get to the
line. That’s about it," Pfleghaar said.
Perrysburg senior guards Kevin Schenk and Jason Meyer added nine and eight points, respectively.
Point-guard Matt Schimmoeller, Schenk, and Schmenk each had four assists as Perrysburg’s ball movement
gave AW problems throughout.
"In general, we passed and caught the ball well against the zone and then really against their press
too," Boyce said.
Up next for Perrysburg is another NLL matchup at rival Maumee on Tuesday. The Panthers have lost two
straight NLL games and are third place in the league.
"Maumee is pretty good … They’re a certainly a top-tier team," Boyce said.
"Right now, we really haven’t put together a string of games where we have a ton of
confidence," he added. "We’re just trying to gain confidence one game at a time."
Perrysburg won the junior varsity game, 55-51. Shane Edwards led the ‘Jackets with a game-high 22 points.
