GENOA — A last gasp chance by Lake boys basketball to slow down Genoa and hand them their first league loss fell way short Friday at the Comets’ Impact Zone.
Genoa continued its onslaught of Northern Buckeye Conference opponents, taking down the Flyers, 76-38, in full view of a packed gym. The Comets remain unbeaten at 17-0 overall and 10-0 in the league, while Lake falls to 14-3 and 7-3, with two of those losses coming to Genoa.
Up to this point, Lake had given Genoa it’s closest NBC encounter all season, falling 61-50 on Dec. 23 on the Flyers’ court. Every other NBC team has at least three league losses with four league games remaining for the Comets and Flyers.
Genoa, ranked second in Division V statewide behind Cleveland Heights Lutheran East, has won every league game by double digits and has only two wins by single digits — 53-51 in overtime against Wayne Trace and 74-69 over Lagrange Keystone.
Friday, at the onset it looked like Lake might have Genoa’s number, just like one year ago when the Flyers upset the Comets at the Impact Zone.
Lake senior guard Carter Behlmer scored the last five points of the first quarter — first getting an easy layup off a backdoor cut with 20 seconds remaining and then hitting a three-point shot with one second remaining, and the Flyers led 13-7 at the first break.
In that opening quarter, Lake’s gameplan was going to perfection as Genoa went 2-for-11 from the field. However, Genoa coach Jon Sandwisch and his team never panicked.
“I wasn’t worried. This is a veteran crew,” Sandwisch said. “I’m really proud of our guys. They work really hard, so no, I wasn’t panicked because I knew we were going to settle in and play Genoa basketball. They knew it, too. They came in a little too pumped up. We knew Lake was going to be fired up for this game and we just settled in to what we do and it showed.”
Less than three minutes into the second quarter, Genoa was already on a 15-0 run and by halftime the Comets led, 34-18. By the fourth quarter, both teams were looking at a running clock because of the 35-point-plus margin.
“The wheels kind of fell off for us,” Lake coach Luke Hickey said. “I think we got away from our plan a little bit. We just didn’t execute on a high enough level and I thought Genoa played extremely well tonight. So, it was a balance of us not being good and them being really good, and it ended up with a score like this.”
It wasn’t just 6-foot-8 Ashland University-bound senior forward Walter Plantz who was hurting the Flyers, it was a barrage of three-point shots by the Comets, including five in the second quarter and 10 by game’s end.
Plantz did his damage scoring a double-double 18 points with 11 rebounds, but senior guard Ryan Routson hit three triples from 23 feet-plus, scoring 14 points, 6-4 senior guard Ty Asman nailed three corner triples, scoring 14 points, and 6-2 junior guard Myles Mollenhauer also connected on three shots from downtown, scoring 11 points with four rebounds.
“We win because of our depth,” Sandwisch said. “A lot of teams are starting to focus on Walt and trying to take him away with doubles (double-teams), triples and different types of zones, and I think we hard to do that with the amount of depth that we have. Walt will be the first one to say, ‘Alright, double me, we’ve got other guys who can score.’ So, I think that was cool to see tonight.”
Hickey said once the gameplan failed, the score snowballed on the Flyers.
“We wanted to try and slow them up and make them guard us in the half court a little bit longer. Then we got away from that a little bit, even after some timeouts,” Hickey said.
“Once you’re down against Genoa it is so hard to come back because they are so good and they can extend the lead. We said late in the game, ‘Hey, this could go from 20 to 40 really quick and we’ve got to let it rip if we are going to have any chance.’ Unfortunately for us they didn’t go in and fortunately for them it did go in.”
Genoa, despite its poor first quarter start, ended up shooting 57% (28-for-49) from the field and 67% (10-for-15) from the free throw line. Plus, the Comets, who have six players 6-2 or taller, out-rebounded the smaller Flyers, whose tallest player is 6-2, by a 36-20 count.
Senior forward Jack Sobczak led the Flyers with 11 points and six rebounds, Behlmer scored eight points, senior guard Preston Snyder had six points, four rebounds and two steals, sophomore guard Jace Ayers scored six points, senior forward Donovan Brown scored three points, and senior forward Xavier Scott and junior guard Jaxson Rymers added two points apiece.
The Flyers shot 33% (16-for-49) from the floor, made three of four free throws, and committed 12 turnovers to the Comets’ 10.
For the Comets, 6-5 junior forward Jax Magnone had eight points and seven rebounds, senior guard Jacob Woollard had seven points and two steals, and junior guard Tommy Braun and senior forward Brock Mathews contributed two points each.