Perrysburg girls fall to AW, drop out of first place in NLL

WHITEHOUSE — What a difference 48 hours can make.
Perrysburg’s girls, coming off a huge win over Northview on Saturday that pulled the Yellow Jackets into
a tie for first place in the Northern Lakes League, experienced a much different feeling at Anthony
Wayne Monday night.
The ’Jackets made too many mistakes, and a hungry AW team made them pay in the form of a 55-46 overtime
loss that dropped Perrysburg out of first place in the NLL.
Perrysburg (15-3 overall, 10-2 NLL) committed 25 turnovers, allowed 13 offensive rebounds, and could
never put the Generals away despite holding a lead for much of the game.
“Honestly, the better team won tonight,” Perrysburg coach Todd Sims said. “We were a half-step slow. For
as quick and agile as we looked Saturday night, we looked that much slower tonight. All the credit goes
to (AW). They played really hard.”
Perrysburg held a 34-30 lead entering the fourth quarter, and led 40-37 after the Generals’ leading
scorer Emma Ricketts fouled out with 3:19 left in the game.
But AW, now 12-5 overall and 8-3 in the NLL, out-scored Perrysburg 18-6 the rest of the fourth quarter
and in overtime for the upset.
In what has become somewhat of a heated rivalry, the Generals avenged a loss from earlier this season, a
50-44 defeat Jan. 7 at Perrysburg.
“It was nothing I did in this game. It was all just player effort. They were on the attack,” AW coach
Justin Zemanski said. “It sounds too simple to be true, but you can’t beat Perrysburg just kind of
hoping to beat them. If you want to knock out the champs you have to knock them out, and our kids were
just on the attack all night.”
Trailing 18-15 midway through the second quarter, Perrysburg went on a 9-1 run to end the half and led
24-19.
The ’Jackets made 13-of-15 free throws in the first half, and despite committing nine turnovers and
allowing 10 offensive rebounds, held a five-point lead at the break.
But the mistakes finally caught up with Perrysburg in the second half, as AW forced Perrysburg into 16
turnovers after halftime.
“That’s been a little bit of our Achilles’ heel throughout the season. We’ve had more turnovers than you
need to have, especially against good teams in big games,” Sims said. “They were quicker than us to the
ball. They were quicker than us to the basket, and they deserved to win.”
Five players fouled out in the game, which saw a combined 60 free throws attempted.
Although the Generals struggled at times from the foul line, finishing 23-of-38, the points from the
charity stripe and Perrysburg’s miscues proved to be the difference.
“To have our leading scorer (Ricketts) foul out with four minutes left to go, things aren’t looking too
good,” Zemanski said. “People stepped up. Girls came off the bench and gave us huge minutes. We made
some foul shots down the stretch.
“This is one of those games where the coach didn’t need to give a pep talk. These kids were just hungry,
and they got it done.”
AW’s Aisha Tyre came off the bench and led all players with 15 points, including a 9-of-16 mark from the
foul line. Hayley Barrett added 14 points for the Generals.
Nicole Delas had a team-high 12 points and added eight rebounds for Perrysburg, while Kelsea Newman added
nine points, nine rebounds and four steals. Lindsay Matolyak had eight points and Kendall Tudor had
seven for the ’Jackets. Perrysburg’s Matolyak, Delas and Kayla VanderVlucht all fouled out in overtime.

The matchup with AW was a makeup game after being postponed earlier this season. It was the second of
what is a span of four NLL games in eight days for the ’Jackets.
“It’s tough, but it is what it is. The game’s on the schedule and we had to play. But I give Anthony
Wayne all the credit,” Sims said.
Perrysburg plays at Springfield (1-10 NLL) Tuesday and hosts Rossford (3-8 NLL) on Saturday. The ’Jackets
must win both games and have Northview lose at least one of its final two NLL games for a share of the
league title.
Northview (11-1 NLL) hosts Rossford Tuesday and Bowling Green (5-6 NLL) on Saturday.
“We have to forget about this,” Sims said. “It’s easy when you win. Everybody tells you how good you are
and pats you on the back and everybody loves everybody.
“When you lose, that’s when you need seniors. That’s when you need captains. It’s a tough situation for
us but that’s when we need them the most. They’ll respond. They’re good at that.”
Perrysburg’s junior varsity team improved to 18-0 with a 34-24 victory. ’Jacket freshman Sarah Baer led
all players with 18 points.
ANTHONY WAYNE 55, PERRYSBURG 46, OT
PERRYSBURG
K. Tudor, 0-1-4—7; Knight, 0-1-0—3; B. Tudor, 1-0—2; Matolyak, 2-4—8; Kaczinski, 0-0—0; Treece, 1-0—2;
Delas, 3-6—12; Newman, 3-3—9; Diehl, 0-0—0; VanderVlucht, 1-1—3. TOTALS: 11-2-18—46.
ANTHONY WAYNE
Bedard, 1-1—3; Barrett, 3-1-5—14; Bonivel, 0-0—0; Tyre, 3-9—15; Ricketts, 2-4—8; Hilfinger, 0-3—3; Kreft,
2-0—4; Smith, 2-1-1—8. TOTALS: 13-2-23—55.
PERRYSBURG 10 14 10 8 4 —46
ANTHONY WAYNE
11 8 11 12 13 —55
Junior varsity: Perrysburg, 34-24.