Perrysburg guard Austin Shultz goes in for a lay-up in the Yellow Jackets’ Northern Lakes League loss to visiting Toledo Whitmer Tuesday. (Kenneth Falls)
By Nicholas Huenefeld
Special to the Sentinel-Tribune
PERRYSBURG — The Perrysburg boys basketball team fell victim to a 23-4 run over a nearly five-minute stretch in an 84-57 loss to visiting Toledo Whitmer on Tuesday.
It was a rough awakening for Perrysburg to the newly realigned Northern Lakes League Buckeye Division, losing the conference opener to the Panthers and falling to 2-2 on the season.
The undefeated Panthers (5-0) scored the final four points of the first half in a 20 second span to take a 32-26 lead. The momentum continued to open the second half as they scored eight straight in the opening minute on a pair of three-pointers and a layup, which forced a Perrysburg timeout.
A layup from Carter Young and a jumper from Austin Shultz pulled the Yellow Jackets within 10 almost a minute later, but Whitmer reeled off the next 11 points to take a 51-30 lead with 4:18 left.
“We were right there for 80 percent of the first half, in fact winning most of the time,” Perrysburg coach Dave Boyce said.
“We missed some shots we needed to make to keep them out of transition. They made a couple at the end of the second quarter and then came out, hit a three, grabbed a steal and all of a sudden, the tempo went in their favor.”
Shultz (14) and Young (12) combined for 26 points to lead Perrysburg while Shultz hit two of the team’s three from long distance. Joe Dynda added seven points and six assists while Young contributed a team-best eight rebounds, including three on the offensive glass.
Meanwhile, Whitmer’s Antione West overwhelmed Perrysburg (2-2) with a game-high 26 points, which included 17 of his team’s 19 points in the second quarter on 7-of-10 shooting, including six in the final minute. One of his three misses came on a rejection from Matt Hubbard.
Makhi Leach (18), Elijah McLeod (14) and Andre Young III (13) also reached double figures for Whitmer as the trio combined with West to score 71 of their team’s 84 points.
“We got beat one on one” Boyce said. “When we tried to help, they found the open man and their guy made the shot. When we missed some shots, they got a little bit of a numerical advantage, and that made it tough.”
Outside of a bucket from Leach on the game’s opening possession, Perrysburg led by as many as four and didn’t trail a 3-pointer from McLeod with 20 seconds left. Shultz, however, answered that with a corner shot from long distance at the buzzer to give the Yellow Jackets a 15-13 lead through one.
Whitmer seized the lead early in the second, but layups from Young and Tyler Palmer knotted the score at 24 apiece with 3:05 left in the half. West responded by personally outscoring Perrysburg 8-2 over the final two minutes as his team ultimately made 10 shots as a team from long range.
“I thought we had some guys play well,” Boyce said. “Some guys really competed, and some guys came in off the bench and contributed. We just didn’t have enough guys play well.”
