| (Photos: Andrew Weber/Sentinel-Tribune) |
SYLVANIA — In a battle of Northern Lakes League unbeatens, Perrysburg’s girls fell victim to a physical
Northview team that put on a clinic at the free-throw line. PHOTO
GALLERY
The Wildcats out-scored Perrysburg 29-3 at the charity stripe and pulled away in the second half for a
56-40 victory Friday.
Northview improved to 8-2 overall and 5-0 in the NLL, moving a game ahead of the Yellow Jackets, who lost
for the first time this season and dropped to 8-1, 4-1.
“The game was lost at the foul line, plain and simple. And they were all fouls. I’m on our team and I
would have called every single one of them,” Perrysburg coach Todd Sims said.
“And the problem was a lot of them weren’t aggressive fouls,” he added. “They’re definitely trying, but
there’s a difference between a good, aggressive basketball foul and just going out and smacking people.
And you can’t do that to Northview ever … They’re too good of a free-throw shooting team.”
Northview finished an impressive 29-of-33 (88 percent) from the foul line,
including an 18-of-19 mark in the second half.
Junior Miriam Justinger went 10-for-10 from the foul line and finished with a game-high 18 points for the
Wildcats.
Senior Valerie Sohasky went 7-of-10 from the line and had 13 points and eight rebounds, and Skylar Rose
and Katelynn McCoy both hit all six of their free-throws and finished with eight points.
“The foul shooting was the key tonight,” Northview coach Jerry Sigler said. “Last night (at practice) I
challenged them … I said it’s going to be decided at the foul line, and it was in the second half.
That’s a credit to the kids, because we run them hard (in practice) and then they shoot.”
Despite finishing just 3-of-9 (33 percent) itself from the foul line, Perrysburg was still within 30-29
after a Kelsea Newman basket with 4:12 remaining in the third quarter.
But the ’Jackets would go 7:14 without scoring as Northview made a 16-0 run to push its lead to 46-29
with just over five minutes left in the game.
“It’s definitely (Northview’s) defense,” Sims said. “It was 30-29 at one time in the third quarter. We
were right there and we got stuck on 29.
“When you get stuck on a number, a lot of times it’s because you don’t go to the foul line enough. You’re
going to miss jump shots, everybody does. But you need to create some offense at the foul line, and we
didn’t do it.”
Newman battled through foul trouble and a collision with a Northview player at halfcourt that left her
face bloodied and forced her to miss time in the second quarter. She finished with 12 points despite
fouling out with 4:21 left in the game.
“We were fortunate enough to get (Perrysburg) in some foul trouble,” Sigler said. “Newman went out and it
sort of swung the game a little bit to our favor.”
Perrysburg senior Nicole Delas scored 10 of her team-high 13 points in the second half, but the ’Jackets
got only 15 points from the rest of their roster.
Both teams struggled taking care of the ball, with Northview committing 18 turnovers and Perrysburg 17,
respectively.
Shooting was also an issue for each squad, as Perrysburg finished 17-of-45 (38 percent) from the floor.
Northview shot 13-of-31 (42 percent) for the game.
“I don’t have a problem really with the way we played,” Sims said. “We missed some shots maybe that we
usually make, but that’s because of (Northview). They’re a very good team. But I’m proud of our effort.
I don’t think we did things poorly, we just can’t put them at the foul line.”
The game was the first of two this season between the NLL powers, with the rematch coming Feb. 12 at
Perrysburg.
“If we would have won tonight it would have just been one win. That’s the thing about basketball, is you
play everybody twice,” Sims said. “So now they have to come to our place, but obviously we now have to
hold serve until we get to them the next time. So that’s the plan.”
Northview’s two losses this season have come to Toledo City League opponents, Central Catholic and Start.
“It’s a matter now of just taking care of business,” Sigler said. “I know it will be a full-house over
there and it will probably be another war. But I enjoy that. That’s why I keep coaching.”
Perrysburg won the junior varsity game, 47-34. Samantha Gremler led the ’Jackets with 16 points, while
Abby Sattler added 11 points and Sarah Baer chipped in with 10.
NORTHVIEW 56, PERRYSBURG 40
PERRYSBURG
K. Tudor, 1-1-0—5; Knight, 2-0—4; B. Tudor, 0-2—2; Matolyak, 0-0—0; Kaczinski, 0-0—0; Treece, 1-0—2;
Delas, 6-1—13; Newman, 3-2-0—12; Diehl, 0-0—0; VanderVlucht, 1-0—2; Mufti, 0-0—0. TOTALS: 14-3-3—40.
NORTHVIEW
Busby, 1-1-0—5; Mason, 0-0—0; Rose, 1-6—8; Justinger, 4-10—18; Yurjevic, 0-0—0; McCoy, 1-6—8; Sohasky,
3-7—13; Fitzgerald, 0-0—0; Jessing, 2-0—4: 12-1-29—56.
PERRYSBURG 7 15 7 11 —40
NORTHVIEW 10 16 14 16 —56
Junior varsity: Perrysburg, 47-34.
