Bulldogs shut down 'Riders

ST. MARYS - St. Marys connected for the first field goal of the game.

By the time the Roughriders hit their second bucket, Celina was in command.

The Bulldogs pulled away in the first quarter and never had to look over their shoulders in improving to 2-4 in the Western Buckeye League boys basketball standings with a 60-26 win in the Battle of Grand Lake on Friday night at Murotech Court in St. Marys.

While the Bulldogs posted their second-best offensive output of the season, it was defense that took to the center ring on the evening.

Celina ranks second in the WBL in defense with 48.3 points per game. The 26 points allowed is a season best. St. Marys scored just eight points in the second half and one point in the final period.

The prime objective of the Celina defense was to keep Derek Jay from getting baskets. Jay, the area's third-leading scorer coming in, had to deal with 6-9 Christian Berry shadowing him most of the evening. The end result was Jay scoring just 11 points on 3-of-9 shooting from the floor.

"It's funny, Jacob Stolly comes to me before the second half and said 'Coach, we need to press them.' I said 'okay,' " Celina coach Jay Imwalle said. "It was in the back of my mind. I didn't want to let Jay get started. I'm glad (Stolly) suggested it to me."

"When you have a kid like (Berry) playing good defense, you have to move more," St. Marys coach Craig Szymczak said. "I thought we slowed down offensively instead of cutting hard (to the basket). We knew they were a good defensive team and knew their size. We had open looks the first half. When they weren't falling, it brought our confidence down a bit."

After the opening three-pointer from Jacob Grannan with 6:35 to go, Celina went on a 9-0 run before St. Marys finally scored again with 3:13 left in the period.

Leading 17-6 after the first quarter, Celina had a slight slowdown in the second quarter as fouls and turnovers allowed St. Marys to get some offense. A pair of Jay free throws with under two minutes left in the half moved the Roughriders to within seven at 25-18, but Berry scored with 31 seconds left to push the lead to 27-18 at the half.

If St. Marys had any ideas of getting out to a strong start to begin the third quarter, Caleb Hoyng quickly stifled such shenanigans.

After Berry scored to start the second half, Hoyng rattled off the next eight points on a hoop-and-harm three-point play, a long-distance trey and a bucket in the paint that turned the score to 37-18 with 5 1/2 minutes left in the quarter. Jay quickly stopped the run with a thee-pointer, but the Celina locomotive was running on a full head of steam. The Bulldogs outscored the Roughriders 21-7 in the quarter to go up 48-25 heading to the fourth.

In the final period, Celina did not let up. Chase Roop's free throw with 5:09 to play was the only point allowed in the quarter as St. Marys turned it over five times. Imwalle cleared his bench with over three minutes to play.

"We did a good job running the floor. I think we had 11 offensive rebounds," Imwalle said. "That's good to have."

"It was a snowball effect on everything," Szymczak said. "We wanted to get out and run, (Celina) gets an offensive rebound and an easy putback. Our goal was to try and not play them halfcourt on offense. When you're taking the ball (out) under the net, it's tough to do."

Hoyng finished with a season-high 24 points on 8-of-10 shooting from the field. Berry added 12 and Kole Murlin finished with nine. The Bulldogs shot 9-of-15 from the floor in the second half (60 percent) and 57.5 percent for the game.

"I thought the second half offensively, we played as well as we have all year," Imwalle said. "What (St. Marys does defensively), you call it a matchup zone but they're switching everything. We emphasized all week and worked all week on our screeners setting screens and slipping to the basket. Second half we did a real good job of that."

Jacob Grannan's five points followed Jay's effort.

Both teams are on the road this evening. Celina treks to St. Henry for a battle of Mercer County teams. St. Marys heads to Sidney.