Bobcat boys rout Maumee (2-18-11)

Capitalizing on its strong senior class on Senior Night and returning to its defensive bread and butter
catapulted Bowling Green to a commanding 58-32 win over Maumee.
BG improved to 16-3 on the season, while keeping its Northern Lakes League ledger unblemished at 13-0.
Maumee falls to 11-8, 7-6.
Up 16-11 with just over five minutes left in the second quarter, the Bobcats, who have relied primarily
on a sticky man-to-man defense throughout the season, abandoned switching up between zone and man and
went to the man defense and applied the clamps to the Panthers.
The combination of strong pressure at the point by Xavier Brown, the anticipation of Max Beattie, and
occasional trapping forced Maumee into a horrendous shooting night as the Panthers converted an anemic
12-of-50 (24 percent) from the field.
“We all know it starts with defense,” said Brown, who BG coach Von Graffin credited with holding Panther
Shawn Flanagan, who had 23 points in a game earlier in the week, to a meager two points.
“Switching to man in the second quarter was working in terms of getting steals. Just putting pressure on
top allowed Chauncey (Orr) and Max to get those steals.”
Beattie, who played a strong all-around game with nine points, two rebounds, and two assists, had five of
his six steals in the opening half. Three of those steals followed BG’s switch to all man allowing the
Bobcats to take a 20-14 lead into halftime.
“Max’s instincts (are such) that you can see the soccer in him, a transition sport, the angles he takes,
the anticipation, the things he cuts off,” said Graffin. “Instead of guarding a man, he’s guarding an
area. He gets in passing lanes, and he does a great job and he has all year.”
“We stopped them big there (after the switch to all man),” said Beattie, who indicated the early zone was
designed to slow Maumee’s up tempo preferences. “Once the second half came around … We kept running a
little bit of traps in there and that had them flustered, and they didn’t know what to do with their
offense.”
According to Graffin, the defensive adjustments were solidified at the half by a staff he considers to be
excellent. As a result, the old sports adage which suggests that defense leads to offense was borne out
big time as BG out-scored Maumee, 38-18, while shooting over 50 percent from the floor, in the second
half.
“We talked at halftime that we were catching and holding against the (Maumee) zone,” said Graffin whose
team finished 22-of-46 overall from the field, but only 5-of-16 from downtown. “We weren’t catching and
passing or catching and shooting. We were catching and letting their zone adjust and there weren’t
attack points. Once we moved the ball quicker and attacked better, now we had the seams.”
“Once we switched up, it definitely speeded up our offense because we began fast breaks,” said Beattie.
“We really picked up the tempo in the second half.”
Brown, who took game-scoring honors with 16 points, opened the second half with consecutive treys giving
BG a 26-14 advantage with 5:55 left. Orr, who finished with 14 points and a game high nine rebounds,
scored six points in a row before senior center Alex Augsburger’s basket put the Bobcats up 34-14.
Maumee, which opened the second half 0-of-7 from the floor with three turnovers, didn’t get a hoop until
Dominique King hit a triple at the 2:21 mark. BG led 38-20 with a quarter to play.
Brown, who drained a career best four 3-pointers in just six attempts, said, “I have to be a threat for
my wings to be a threat, so I figured I’d try to take a shot here and there if I’m open and sure enough
they were just falling.”
With seven players scoring in the final quarter, BG never saw its lead dip below 20 points following
Orr’s traditional 3-point play with 7:13 to go in the game. For their final home game, the seniors
accounted for 45 of BG’s 58 points and 21 of its 33 rebounds.
“When we all contribute on the offensive end, then we all help each other (to be more effective),” added
Brown who credited his brother Vitto’s second half offensive aggressiveness in opening up opportunities
for the Bobcat guards.
The BG junior varsity team outlasted Maumee 50-42 with Evan Gardner and Jadon Nichols pacing the Bobcats
with 18 and 10 points, respectively.
BGHS 58, MAUMEE 32
MAUMEE
Olman, 1-0—2; Lane, 0-1-0—3; Martin, 4-1-1—12; Nowak, 1-1-1—6; Wanamaker, 0-0—0; Flanagan, 1-0—2; Kolbow,
0-0—0; King, 0-1-1—4; Barnum, 1-0—2; McGovern, 0-1—1; Kline, 0-0—0. TOTALS: 8-4-4—32.
BGHS
Beattie, 3-1-0—9; X. Brown, 2-4-0—16; Fairchild, 0-0—0; Herringshaw, 0-0—0; Dunn, 1-2—4; Orr, 5-4—14; V.
Brown, 3-1—7; Gardner, 0-0—0; Peet, 1-0—2; Dill, 0-2—2; Augsburger, 2-0—4; Donaldson, 0-0—0. TOTALS:
17-5-9—58.
MAUMEE 7 7 6 12 —32
BGHS 11 9 18 20 —58
Junior varsity: Bowling Green, 50-42.