PERRYSBURG — It took a while for Perrysburg’s boys to shake their doldrums Tuesday night against Toledo
Start.
But the Yellow Jackets finally woke up from their most recent loss to Bowling Green just four days
earlier, coming back in the fourth quarter to post a 61-51 non-league victory over the Spartans of the
Toledo City League.
Perrysburg out-scored Start 23-9 in the fourth quarter and made 18-of-21 free throws in the game to
improve to 11-6 overall.
“We were sort of struggling on offense for quite a while,” Perrysburg coach Dave Boyce said. “Then we hit
a point about the middle of the third quarter where we started taking what they were giving us, but more
than anything we started finishing.
“We sputtered along for quite a while but we hung in there. Then when we got some momentum we did a nice
job of closing.”
Start led 46-43 with 5:55 left in the game after a powering dunk by Antonio Mays. However, Mays was
called for a technical foul after hanging on the rim and slapping the backboard.
Perrysburg’s Matt Schimmoeller, who finished with a game-high 18 points and made all 10 of his free
throws, then calmly knocked down the two ensuing free throws that started an 18-5 run by the ’Jackets to
close out the game.
Kevin Schenk had 14 points, and Devon Dunbar and Jake Pfleghaar each added eight points for the ‘Jackets,
who were coming off a loss to BG on Friday that clinched an outright Northern Lakes League title for the
Bobcats.
“We just didn’t want that to get in the way of our season,” said Schimmoeller of the loss to BG.
Schimmoeller, a 6-foot-4 point-guard who often sees time in the post for the ’Jackets on offense and
defense, added four assists and two steals.
“The fact that we were able to get back in it and get the win just builds confidence for the team,”
Schimmoeller said.
Start (8-8) held Perrysburg to six points in the first quarter and built its largest lead of the game at
25-16 with 2:52 left in the first half.
The ’Jackets responded with a 12-4 run before halftime, capped by a 3-pointer before the buzzer by Schenk
that cut Start’s lead to 29-28 at the break.
Schenk had 11 first-half points, while Karter Sell added all seven of his points in the first half and
finished with a game-high three steals.
Start went on another mini-run to start the third quarter, building its lead to 36-28 less than two
minutes into the second half.
However, Perrysburg answered by out-scoring the Spartans 33-15 the rest of the game. Schimmoeller scored
16 of his 18 points in the second half.
“We certainly never gave up,” Boyce said. “We fell down by eight at least twice, but the difference in
this game and a couple others this year was when we got close, we finished it. We took the lead and then
we stretched the lead.
“That’s what we haven’t done this year … We did a good job when we had to do it.”
Mays led a balanced-scoring effort for Start with 10 points. Both teams finished with 17 turnovers, but
the Spartans made just 5-of-12 (42 percent) attempts from the foul line.
Perrysburg, which drew Lima Senior in the first round of the Division I sectional at Liberty-Benton on
March 1, plays at Anthony Wayne Friday before finishing the regular season with home games against
Toledo Waite and Maumee next week.
“Coming off a big Bowling Green defeat, there’s no doubt at practice you could tell the wind was out of
our sails a little bit, and we played that way in the first quarter,” Boyce said.
“The biggest thing tonight does is sort of get you back on track, puts a little bounce in your step, and
you could tell that in the locker room after the game.”
Perrysburg won the junior varsity game, 52-45. Shane Edwards and Chris Schimmoeller each had 16 points,
while Bryant Byrd added 12 points for the ’Jackets.
PERRYSBURG 61, START 51
START
Ivery, 3-0—6; Wietrzykowski, 0-1-1—4; Crisp, 3-1-0—9; Hampton, 1-0—2; Lawson, 0-0—0; Taylor, 2-3—7;
Hicks, 3-0—6; Grays, 3-1—7; Mays, 5-0—10. TOTALS: 20-2-5—51.
PERRYSBURG
Milne, 0-1-0—3; Gordon, 0-0—0; Schenk, 1-3-3—14; Sell, 2-1-0—7; Meyer, 0-0—0; Pfleghaar, 2-4—8; Dunbar,
4-0—8; Schimmoeller, 4-10—18; Schmenk, 1-1—3. TOTALS: 14-5-18—61.
START 12 17 13 9 —51
PERRYSBURG 6 22 10 23 —61
Junior varsity: Perrysburg, 52-45.
