Perrysburg’s Schenk hits buzzer-beater, ends Bobcats’ season (3-4-11)

FINDLAY — On one side jubilation, the other heartbreak.
Both extremes of emotions were on display in the Division I sectional final between Wood County rivals
Bowling Green and Perrysburg Friday night.
And in the end it came down to a single play to decide the outcome.
Perrysburg senior Kevin Schenk made an
improbable long-range 3-pointer to beat the buzzer and the Yellow Jackets shocked BG, 46-43 at
Liberty-Benton High School. PHOTO GALLERY

The
Yellow Jackets (15-7 overall) shook off two regular-season losses to the Bobcats (17-4), and advanced to
face Findlay in the district semifinals Thursday back at L-B.
“More than anything, it’s shown how much we’ve grown up,” Perrysburg coach Dave Boyce said. “I just think
tonight we were ready to make the plays that we had to make at crunch time. Obviously we made one more
big one.”
With Perrysburg appearing to have the game in hand, leading 43-39 with less than 30 seconds remaining,
BG’s Xavier Brown and Vitto Brown made back-to-back baskets in a span of eight seconds to erase a
four-point deficit and tie the game with 15 seconds left.
Then, with overtime looming, Perrysburg came down the floor with no timeouts left and called a play for
Schenk.
With Xavier Brown playing as good of defense as a player can without fouling, Schenk created some space
and drilled a turnaround triple from just right of straight-on and over 20 feet from the basket as time
expired.
“It’s incredible,” said Schenk, who finished with a team-high 14 points. “They made a big shot at the end
to tie it up and we had to come down the floor with no timeouts left.
“Coach called a play to get me the ball and Xavier was playing good defense on me. I had to pump fake and
take a dribble to create some space and I was able to make the shot.”
Xavier Brown led all players with 24 points for BG, which had to finish the final 2:14 of the game
without leading scorer Chauncey Orr, who fouled out of the game.
The Yellow Jackets limited the talented Orr to just three points in the game, double-teaming him
throughout and forcing him into three offensive fouls, which BG coach Von Graffin thought could have
gone the other way.
“They did a great job of taking Chauncey out of the game,” Graffin said. “All three charges were suspect
to say the least.
“They had two (players) on him,” Graffin added. “They got hands on him and pushed him where they wanted
to push him … That was the difference in the game with Chauncey off the floor. He’s averaging 21
(points) per game. Xavier tried to carry us and did a heck of a job … But what else are you going to
say?”
The opposite of their first two games with BG this season, the ’Jackets came out aggressively and held a
16-7 lead after the first quarter.
But the Bobcats, who went 14-0 in winning the Northern Lakes League this season, regrouped and out-scored
Perrysburg, 29-16 in the middle two quarters and held a 36-32 leading entering the final eight minutes.

Three-pointers by Perrysburg’s Karter Sell and Alec Schmenk to open the fourth gave Perrysburg the lead
back at 38-36 with 5:30 left, and the ’Jackets never trailed again.
“They drove it at us tonight in the first quarter real nice and did a really good job,” Graffin said. “We
adjusted in the second quarter and we won the middle two quarters. We lost the first and fourth. That’s
the difference.
“That’s a pretty good Perrysburg team,” he added. “They played well. They did some nice things.”
Sell and Matt Schimmoeller each finished with 10 points for Perrysburg, and junior Jake Pfleghaar pulled
down a game-high 10 rebounds. The ’Jackets overcame 20 turnovers in the game, but made 5-of-7 shots (71
percent) from 3-point range.
Senior Max Beattie scored seven points and Vitto Brown blocked five shots, but the Bobcats got just six
points from players besides Beattie and the Brown brothers. BG shot 36 percent (16-of-44) from the field
and missed 5-of-11 free throws.
“We had a heck of a season. We were 14-0 in the league,” Graffin said. “We met one of our goals — to go
undefeated in the league. We wanted to make a run in the tournament. We fell short there.”
Next for Perrysburg is another difficult test in Findlay, 19-2 overall. The Trojans eliminated the
’Jackets in their sectional opener last season.
But Perrysburg, with unexpected wins over Lima Senior and BG in the sectionals, is playing as well as it
has all season.
“Obviously, we’ve got our work cut out for us,” Boyce said. “The big thing is these two wins are huge for
these kids.
“We sort of came into this year with not a lot of experience and started out with a bad loss. And then
throughout the season there were ups and downs … Now it’s tournament time. Now we’ve just got to keep
it going.”
BOYS
DIVISION I
PERRYSBURG 46, BGHS 43
PERRYSBURG
Milne, 0-0—0; Gordon, 1-0—2; Schenk, 4-2-0—14; Sell, 1-2-2—10; Meyer, 0-0—0; Pfleghaar, 2-1—5; Dunbar,
1-0—2; Schimmoeller, 4-2—10; Schmenk, 0-1-0—3. TOTALS: 13-5-5—46.
BGHS
Beattie, 0-2-1—7; X. Brown, 7-3-1—24; Fairchild, 0-0—0; Dunn, 0-0—0; Orr, 1-1—3; V. Brown, 3-0—6; Dill,
0-2—2; Augsburger, 0-1—1. TOTALS: 11-5-6—43.
PERRYSBURG 16 8 8 14 —46
BGHS 7 15 14 7 —43