Defense, height power Clyde to victory
CLYDE - The tallest players for Fremont St. Joseph Central Catholic are 5-foot-9 Makenzie Reiter and Jessica Drown. Clyde has five girls that are 5-foot-9 or taller, with Addie Martin coming in at 6-foot-1 for the Fliers.
Clyde used its height advantage for many easy buckets but SJCC was scrappy as Clyde picked up a 58-46 non-conference win in Tuesday.
“St. Joe was scrappy here,” Clyde coach Dave Lozier said. “We took a beating from Toledo Start on Saturday but we felt like we were bigger than St. Joe. That was the difference.”
Martin paced the Fliers (2-1) with a game-high 16 points while pulling down six rebounds.
“She was the difference for us again,” said Lozier. “She struggled a bit against the bigs from Start but she was key. We found her open inside and she got some buckets.”
A slow start by Clyde allowed the Crimson Streaks (2-1) to lead 4-2 almost halfway through the quarter before the Fliers woke up.
Heidi Marshall, who has been hampered by an ankle injury in the opening week of the season, scored, assisted a Morgan Bannister 3-pointer and scored again, all in a 45-second span to put Clyde ahead, 9-4.
SJCC bounced back, and after two scores from Brooke Casperson, trailed just 13-12 early in the second quarter. Clyde responded with a 9-0 run, kickstarted on a 3-pointer from Melissa Laconis, and capped after Laconis recorded a steal and layup. Clyde maintained a comfortable lead for rest of the quarter and took a 30-21 lead into halftime.
After three turnovers in the first quarter, the Crimson Streaks coughed the ball up eight times in the second quarter en route to 23 turnovers on the night.
“We had too many turnovers,” said SJCC coach Mallory Holliday. “Clyde plays a nice pressure defense and they’re able to score off turnovers. They’re a good basketball team.”
SJCC got within five points on Makenzie Reiter’s only score of the night with 5:28 left in the third quarter but a quick 6-1 run by Clyde opened the lead back up to 40-30. Miranda Wammes hit her first of two 3-pointers in response but the Fliers ran off the final six points of the quarter to open their biggest lead of the night, 46-33.
Holliday noted that facing a taller team in Clyde will help the Crimson Streaks prepare for teams like St. Wendelin in league play.
“We look at it as preparing,” she said. “Defending taller teams is always tough. We look at the loss as a learning experience. It helped us find out what we can get better at. We talked about what we can improve on from this game.”
Clyde opened as big as a 16-point lead on a 3-point play from Bree Dowling in the fourth quarter. Dowling finished with nine points and nine rebounds.
“We play hard and we work hard,” Lozier said. “We bounced back well from the Start loss and St. Joe pushed us and that’s what we needed here.”
After three games in five nights to open the season, Clyde will get a week off before opening Sandusky Bay Conference against Sandusky Perkins.
“We have a week off to get a little healthy,” said Lozier. “We want to keep rolling, starting with Perkins.”
Wammes topped SJCC with 15 points while Adrienne Wehring yanked down nine rebounds to go with 11 points.
Stat Box
SJCC 10-11-12-13 - 46
Clyde 13-17-16-12 - 58
SJCC: 19-44 FG, 6-11 FT, 2-6 3pt (Wammes), 26 rebounds (Wehring 9), 23 turnovers. Scoring: Ava Stepanic 1 0-0 2, Adrienne Wehring 4 3-4 11, Makenzie Reiter 1 0-0 2, Miranda Wammes 5 3-6 15, Blair Wonderly 2 0-0 4, Brooke Casperson 6 0-1 12, Jessica Drown 0 0-0 0.
Clyde 21-54 FG, 11-11 FT, 2-11 3pt (Laconis, Bannister), 28 rebounds (Dowling 9), 17 turnovers. Scoring: Melissa Laconis 2 2-2 7, Heidi Marshall 3 2-2 8, Morgan Bannister 2 2-2 7, Lillian Royster 2 0-0 4, Bree Dowling 4 1-1 9, Addie Martin 6 4-4 16, Hayley Robinett 1 0-0 2, Kennedy Arndt 0 0-0 0, Sarah Alexander 1 0-0 2, Kaylee Klinski 0 0-0 0, Brandyce Wott 0 0-0 0.