Thursday, Bowling Green boys basketball got the test they knew was eventually coming their way.
A taller Sylvania Northview squad invaded the Bobcats’ gym and dominated off the glass, handing BG their first loss, 69-52.
Both teams are 3-1 overall after the non-league game between a Northern Lakes League Cardinal Division member (BG) and NLL Buckeye Division member (Northview).
The Wildcats outrebounded the Bobcats, 43-22, and Northview connected on 49% (26-of-53) of their shots from the floor.
However, the Wildcats were not even playing their “big” lineup, but they still averaged a couple inches in height advantage per man over the Bobcats.
Senior combo guard Drew Barnesky led Northview with a game-high 24 points, senior point guard Jackson Clausius had 13 points, 11 rebounds and two steals, and junior combo guard Gavin Kieffer scored 10 points.
However, their big man, Northview 6-foot-8 wing forward Nik Echelmeyer, a starter, grabbed eight rebounds but had just two points, seeing limited minutes, especially in the second half.
“We didn’t play any of our big players,” Northview coach Jeremy McDonald said. “We went small, but we just got back to basics in practice. We really struggled offensively the first three games.”
The Wildcats came into the game with wins over Toledo Bowsher (49-44) and Fremont Ross (48-41), but lost to crosstown rival Sylvania Southview (43-40), so McDonald took his team back to fundamentals.
That’s because, believe it or not, even with guys listed at 6-8, 6-7, and 6-5, they had trouble rebounding in those first three games.
“We just got back to jump-stopping in the paint and we worked really hard on boxing out. We were 0-for-3 in the first three games in the rebound battle, but we won it tonight and that was crucial for us,” McDonald said.
“We were tremendous defensively until the last two minutes and we got a lot of contributions from a lot of different guys offensively.”
BG senior guard Ahmir Ruffin led the Bobcats with 21 points and six rebounds, senior guard Brayden Freyman scored 13 and senior guard Jacob Amspoker had 11 points and two steals.
The Wildcats reeled off the first six points and held a 20-9 lead before Amspoker connected on two free throws stemming from a technical foul whistled against Northview with 8.9 seconds remaining in the first quarter.
The second quarter saw BG go on a 13-2 run with Ruffin tying the game at 26-26 on a drive to the basket with 2:10 remaining in the half. Suddenly, the quicker Bobcats looked like they had it figured out.
However, Barnesky scored the final seven points of the half on an offensive rebound and putback, a three-point goal, and a drive to the basket with two seconds remaining to give the Wildcats a 33-26 lead at intermission.
Ruffin hit a 15-foot jumper on BG’s first possession of the second half, and then scored driving to the rim to bring BG back to within three, 33-30, in less than a minute of play. Then, BG’s offense just seemed to shut down.
“The third quarter we cut it to three and then I don’t think we scored for what seemed like 20 minutes,” BG coach Mason Roth said.
Northview closed the third quarter on a 16-3 run and the Wildcats never looked back, increasing the lead to 24 (57-33) with 6:30 remaining in the game.
BG finished shooting 20-for-55 (36%) from the field, made 8-of-10 free throws, and the Bobcats had just five turnovers to Northview’s 13. The Wildcats had twice as many opportunities at the line, making 14-of-20.
For the Bobcats, junior forward Karter Shank had five points and five rebounds and junior guard Ja’ceous Shannon scored two points.
For the Wildcats, senior wing guard Nick Campbell had nine points and 11 rebounds, junior wing forward Tyler Robinson had eight points and eight boards, and sophomore wing guard Carson Holmes scored three points.
Roth says the Wildcats at least provided a test so he can see how his undersized team, with the tallest player listed at 6-3, performs against a taller team before they get into NLL Cardinal Division play.
“It was a good test for us. It’s a good basketball team,” Roth said. “Some of those guys have played in a lot of battles — we’ve battled with them in the past, and tonight we just didn’t make enough shots to win it.
“It’s good to play good basketball teams. Our goal is to be the best team by the end of February and you have to play in games like this. You have to play teams that are good.
“It’s great to beat teams that you are better than but at some point you’ve got to challenge yourself. We are in that stretch right now where we are really going to see what we are made of — Dayton Dunbar on Saturday in Lima (2 p.m. in Coach Q Classic at Lima Senior), and it’s going to be a battle.
“Then we’ve got Southview (Tuesday in BG) and (at) Napoleon next week (Friday) — two big league games. We are going to see if we are pretenders or if we are contenders.”
