JERRY CITY — Elmwood’s boys basketball team took out its frustration on Gibsonburg Friday night.
The Royals dropped a tough one-point decision at Patrick Henry last Saturday and then lost by two points
at home to Woodmore on Tuesday.
It was a different story against the Golden Bears and Elmwood took away any doubt with a 41-point second
half on the way to a 69-33 victory. The Royals are 9-3 overall and alone in first place in the SLL at
5-1. The Golden Bears are 4-7, 2-4.
“Elmwood has a very nice team and you knew coming in here you don’t want to play an angry Elmwood team,”
Gibsonburg head coach Brent Liskai said. “They have so many weapons and we don’t match up with them at
this point.”
Ty Traxler, Elmwood’s head coach, said he’s had a few sleepless nights over the last week after the close
losses. The Royals shot 11-of-26 from the free-throw line against Patrick Henry and then watched
Woodmore shoot over 70 percent from the field on Tuesday when a last-second Elmwood shot which would
have forced overtime did not fall.
“It was real nice to bounce back and get a big win; it feels a lot better,” Traxler said.
The Royals were able to score in transition as Gibsonburg had 27 turnovers in the game.
“What our pressure did was make the tempo of the game faster,” Traxler said. “The last two games, it
hasn’t been a real high tempo and that was kind of our goal tonight is to make sure we dictated the
tempo.”
Elmwood controlled play in the first half, but Gibsonburg hung in the game and the Royals were up 27-20
at the break.
Part of the Royals’ first-half success came through the efforts of Tyler Rosendale and Max Zyski off the
bench. Zyski scored five points in the second quarter and Rosendale ran the point and also hit a
3-pointer.
“Tyler Rosendale and Max Zyski would start on a lot of other teams in the SLL,” Traxler said. “They both
embrace their role, coming off the bench with a senior-ladened team … To us they are starters.
“Both of them came off the bench and played great tonight,” Traxler added
Traxler said he was pleased with Zyski’s defensive efforts on Gibsonburg’s Logan Jones and Rosendale’s
leadership at the point.
Gibsonburg was slowed by 12 first half turnovers and when the Golden Bears did get the ball into the
offensive end, they missed numerous layups.
The Royals put the game away with a 9-2 run to start the second half and then a 16-0 run, that included
the final six points of the third quarter and the first 10 points of the fourth quarter.
“They share the basketball and their sharing of the basketball is something we don’t do very well right
now and it shows,” Liskai said.
“This is a four- or five-game problem for us. We’re making mistakes a varsity player shouldn’t make —
traveling in the open court, missing layups — those are things that shouldn’t happen,” he continued. “We
weren’t mentally prepared before the game and it was obvious.”
Gage Beaber led Gibsonburg with 11 points, all in the first half as the Royals rotated several bigger
players including Jack Waldock and Kevin Hammer on the 5-feet-10 Beaber in order to limit his
effectiveness and contest his pull-up jumpers.
The Golden Bears were 12-of-38 on 2-pointers (31.6 percent), including 4-of-22 (18.2 percent) in the
second half, 0-of-5 on threes, and 9-of-18 from the free-throw line.
Jay Hannah led Elmwood with 14 points while Kevin Hammer and Rosendale each added 12.
Elmwood was 20-of-57 on 2-pointers (54.1 percent), 5-of-20 on threes (20 percent) and 13-of-17 from the
free-throw line (76.5 percent).
Elmwood won the junior varsity game, 49-29. Mica Robinson and Zach Foster each scored 10 points for the
Royals.
ELMWOOD 68, GIBSONBURG 33
GIBSONBURG
Eddings, 2-0—4; Beaber, 4-3—11; Yarborogh. 0-0—0; Sneider, 1-0—2; Jones, 4-0—8; Clark, 0-0—0; Dortmeyer,
0-2—2; Jahna, 0–2—2; Arriaga, 0-0—0; Cantrell, 0-0—0; Ernsthausen, 1-2—4; Rainey, 0-0—0. TOTALS:
12-9—33.
ELMWOOD
Davis, 0-0—0; J. Waldock, 1-1-2—7; Hammer, 3-1-3—12; Hannah, 4-1-3—14; T.J. Waldock, 4-0—8; Rosendale,
2-2-2—12; Zyski, 2-1—5; Stewart, 0-0—0; Varty, 0-0—0; Torrey, 1-0—2; Foster, 1-1—3; Marsh, 1-0—2;
Hosmer, 0-0—0; Scott, 1-1—3. TOTALS: 20-5-13—68.
GIBSONBURG 9 11 7 6 —33
ELMWOOD 16 11 21 20—68
Junior varsity: Elmwood, 49-29.
