Findlay boys stay in zone, claim seventh straight

Toledo St. Francis was a in a zone Tuesday night, and from an Xs and Os perspective that seemed a logical scheme against Findlay.But Findlay was in a zone, too, and all the Xs and Os in the play book couldn't have stopped them.Jake Bishop put Findlay ahead with back-to-back-to-back 3-pointers in a 60-second burst in the first quarter, Findlay bombed in 5-of-7 3's in a 28-point second quarter, and the Trojans cruised to their seventh straight win by beating St. Francis 69-33 in a Three Rivers Athletic Conference matchup at the FHS Gymnasium."We have some shooters on this team, and being a shooter, we love zones," said Bishop, a junior guard who nailed five 3-pointers in the game and scored a team-high 19 points.Findlay trailed St. Francis — or more specifically Knights' senior Ethan Meyer — 7-4 midway through the first quarter. Some excellent passing against the Knights' 2-3 zone created opportunities, though, and the Trojans heated up.Bishop's trio of 3's quickly turned that 7-4 deficit into a 13-7 lead. Max Roth opened the second quarter with Findlay's fourth 3-pointer and after inside baskets by Luke Montgomery and Terrion Ross, Brock Makrancy knocked down a triple to complete a 10-0 run that boosted Findlay's lead to 23-9.Findlay added 5-0, 5-0 and 7-0 runs in the second quarter and opened the second half with a 12-0 burst to go up 53-20.Roth's 3-pointer late in the period made it 59-24 and triggered the running clock instituted this season when a team leads by 35 points or more."Our guys have shown they can shoot the ball," FHS coach Jim Rucki said after Findlay connected on 12 of 26 3-pointers and 28 of 50 shots overall."I don't get particularly crazy about that (a zone defense) because sometimes you start settling for shots. I thought there were a couple of times where we passed up some shots probably should have taken, but overall, considering the atmosphere and the energy in the gym, I thought we did a pretty good job, not just shooting the ball but moving their defense and getting open shots."Roth finished with 13 points, Makrancy had nine and Ross netted eight. Post players Montgomery and Sam Weihrauch were a combined 6-of-7 from the field and added six points each.Findlay turned the ball over just seven times and, with Bishop hauling down nine rebounds, dominated St. Francis 26-16 on the boards.Meyer led St. Francis with 14 points and six rebounds, all coming in the first half. Freshman guard Jameson Heck added 10 points for the Knights (0-11, 0-5 TRAC).Findlay's seventh straight win boosted the Trojans' record to 8-3 overall and 4-3 in the TRAC heading into Friday's showdown with Lima Senior. The state-ranked Spartans also posted their seventh straight win on Tuesday, beating Fremont Ross 96-57 to remain unbeaten in league play (7-0) and climb to 8-1 overall.ST. FRANCIS (0-11, 0-5 TRAC)Sanders 2-4 0-0 4, Heck 2-8 4-4 10, Meyer 4-10 6-6 14, Kuh 0-2 0-0 0, Beredo 0-2 0-0 0, Ball 1-2 0-0 2, Walker 0-2 1-2 1, Bacon 0-1 2-2 2, Neary 0-0 0-0 0, Coop 0-0 0-0 0, Gomez-Castro 0-0 0-0 0. TOTALS: 9-31 13-14—33.FINDLAY (8-3, 4-3 TRAC)J. Roth 0-1 0-0 0, Ross 4-5 0-0 8, M. Roth 5-11 0-0 13, Bishop 7-11 0-0 19, L. Montgomery 3-4 0-0 6, S. Weihrauch 3-3 0-0 6, Hill 2-3 0-0 5, Mueller 0-0 0-0 0, Makrancy 3-9 1-1 9. Ernst 1-1 0-0 3, L. Weihrauch 0-1 0-0 0, R. Montgomery 0-0 0-0 0. TOTALS: 28-50 1-1—69.St. Francis 9 11 7 6—33Findlay 13 28 18 10—693-Point GOALS: Findlay 12-26 (J. Roth 0-1, M. Roth 3-7, Bishop 5-9, Makrancy 2-4, Hill 1-2, L. Weihrauch 0-1); Toledo St. Francis 2-11 (Ball 0-1, Sanders 0-2, Heck 2-2, Walker 0-2, Meyer 0-2, Kuh 0-1, Beredo 0-1).REBOUNDS: Findlay 26 (Bichop 9, S, Weihrauch 4); Toledo St. Francis 16 (Meyer 6).TURNOVERS: Findlay 7, Toledo St. Francis 15.JUNIOR VARSITY: Findlay, 67-42.