By BRIAN SMITH
Sports Editor

As frustrating as the first 29 minutes of the game proved while going against a zone defense that exposed a perimeter shooting weakness, the Defiance Bulldogs kept grabbing missed shots and converted just enough at the end of the game to rescue a league victory.

Defiance scored seven of the last nine points of the game to pull out a road 48-41 Western Buckeye League win over the St. Marys boys basketball team at McBroom Gymnasium on Monday night.

St. Marys erased a seven-point deficit from early in the quarter with five straight made perimeter shots, with Adam Lininger exploding for 10 fourth-quarter points. Lininger’s step back trey with 2:51 left in the game tied the contest at 39-39.

Lininger paced the Riders with 13 points – all of them coming in the second half and off the bench.
After both teams traded two points each, Defiance got a big basket from Alex Keel on a dribble drive to the basket with 1:30 left.

Defiance head coach Kirk Lehman thought his team played well on the offensive end when required. “I was really pleased with the plays we made in the clutch,” Lehman said. “We were able to get penetration and make really good individual plays in the clutch.”

After a St. Marys three-point attempt came up short, Defiance’s patient offense found Steven Hammersmith under the basket for an uncontested lay-up.

“There were two possessions at the defensive end where we broke down,” St. Marys head coach Paul Sadler said. “We let Alex Keel, who we had held down most of the game, go right past us into the lane. Then on the next possession, we have the guy we want to foul with the ball and we fail to do it. It’s disappointing to lose it on the defensive end, where we’ve played so well.”

An ensuing five-second call against St. Marys turned the ball back over to the Bulldogs, where free throws salted away the win for Defiance.

The game was a rescheduled game after being postponed on Jan. 16 because of weather conditions.

Defiance improves to 11-4, 4-2 in the WBL with the win while St Marys falls to 1-14, 1-5 in the league.

Alex Nofziger had 12 points to pace the Bulldogs. He scored nine of those points in the second half to help carry an otherwise sluggish offensive performance from the Bulldogs.

St. Marys held leads after the first quarter and at the half with efficiency on the offensive end and a zone defense that forced Defiance to shoot it from the outside.

“We aren’t a perimeter team,” Lehman said of his squad that has 6-6 Hammersmith, 6-6 Keel and 6-8 Eric Stapleton. “We’re not going to light it up from out there.”

Defiance went 1-for-10 beyond the arc on Monday night.

That’s a long cry from the Defiance teams of the last few years that were strong at guard and lacked size. For a while it looked like that lack of perimeter firepower would haunt Kirk Lehman’s club.

Defiance shot just 3-of-14 from the field in the first quarter while the Riders were 3-of-6 in building a 9-8 lead. St. Marys went to the locker room up by one after another strong 4-of-5 performance from the field.

“Things start to open up when you hit some perimeter shots,” Sadler said.

St. Marys had a balanced offensive attack to go along with Lininger’s 13 points. Derek Roop scored eight points, Scott Kinkley added seven points, Jake Taylor and Devon Fitzgerald each had five points and Tyler Menker added three points.

Fitzgerald scored those five points and grabbed three rebounds off the bench for St. Marys. Sadler said Fitzgerald, who played almost exclusively on the junior varsity team to begin the season, has played well down the stretch. “He’s one of the kids we’re excited about,” Sadler said. “He’s a sophomore and we try to get him time. He surprises some people with his offensive abilities.”

Fitzgerald kicked off the Riders’ fourth-quarter charge with a baseline eight footer after knocking in a bank shot in the third quarter, as well.

Defiance  opened up a lead in the third quarter by hitting the offensive glass. On three early third quarter possessions, Bulldog offensive boards led to six points.

Of Defiance’s 20 rebounds in the game, eight of them were offensive boards.

“We gave up way too many offensive rebounds,” Sadler said. “I know Defiance has some size, but we can’t allow teams to do that.”

The result was a five-point Defiance 31-26 lead after three quarters.

TOURNEY  NOTES: St. Marys drew Elida for the second straight year in the first game of the sectional. St. Marys won that game last year. Again, the two teams will play each other in back-to-back games over a matter of seven days. “I’ve heard coaches say they hold things back in the first game in situations like this, but we want to play to win both games,” Sadler said. The regular season contest against Elida will be played at McBroom Gymnasium on Friday, Feb. 24. The sectional game will take place on Wednesday, March 4 at Lima Senior High School.

DEFIANCE        48
ST. MARYS        41

D       8   9  14   17  -  48
SM    9   9`  8    15  -  41

Defiance
Taylor Keel 1-0-2, Nofziger 5-1-12, Alex Keel 3-3-9, Parsons 0-2-2, Gutman 2-0-4, Hammersmith 2-0-4, Beverly 3-0-6.

St. Marys
Adam Lininger 4-2-13, Scott Kinkley 3-0-7, Derek Roop 2-2-8, Tyler Menker 1-2-3, Devon Fitzgerald 2-1-5.

Rebounds: DEF 20, SM 14.

Turnovers: DEF 6, SM 14.

Shooting: DEF 19-40, SM 14-26.