Rucki ties record in win over TCC

An 0-3 start to Three Rivers Athletic Conference play put Findlay in a spoiler's role this season.Spoiler alert!The Trojans are playing more like contenders than pretenders these days.A combination of Findlay's strong all-around play and Toledo Central Catholic's frigid shooting helped the Trojans open a sizable second-half lead on Tuesday and clutch play in crunch time made it stand up for a 66-56 one-for-the-history-books win over the state-ranked Irish."That's a really good win over a very good team," said FHS coach Jim Rucki, who upped his career record at Findlay to 342-175 and tied Carl Bachman, who won 342 games from 1934 through 1956, as the winningest coach in FHS boys basketball history."Whether it was them not making shots or us defensively, I know we guarded the stuff that we had to guard pretty well. And we rebounded. When teams miss a lot of shots there are lots of chances for offensive rebounds. We defensive rebounded pretty well; that was the biggest thing."Max Roth scored 26 points, Jake Bishop had 21 and Justin Roth tossed in 10 as Findlay beat Toledo Central Catholic, 15-3 overall and ranked No. 3 in the Division II state polls, for the second time this season. The Irish were 8-2 in the TRAC entering the game and looking at a Feb. 11 showdown with league-leading Lima Senior (13-2, 9-1 TRAC) as a chance to move into a tie for first place, but now trail the Spartans by two games in the standings."We controlled out own destiny coming in here. Obviously, it's out of our hands now," said TCC coach Mike Floyd."We have to try to rebound and refocus going into tournament, which is the most important thing."Findlay was coming off a TRAC loss to Toledo Whitmer. Toledo Central Catholic had won 10 of its last 11, including a win over nationally-ranked Word of God Christian out of Raleigh N.C.From the opening tip, though, Findlay was the stronger team.Max Roth scored nine points and Justin Roth four as Findlay jumped ahead 15-7. At the half, the Trojans were up 29-11.Central Catholic did not help its cause, making just 1-of-9 3-point attempts and 4-of-20 shots overall in the first two quarters."Findlay did a nice job," Floyd said. "You can't get behind them; that was one of our worries coming here because they are so good, so skilled at pulling the ball out."Findlay padded the lead to 39-20 when Bishop drilled a 3-pointer with 2:27 left in the third quarter, and was up 47-28 after three when Terrion Ross hit a buzzer-beating '3' from the left corner.Central Catholic didn't get to be 15-2 and state-ranked without some talent, though. And in a get-after-it kind of fourth quarter, the Irish turned that talent loose in a scrambling bid to get back in it.It almost worked.Kechan Johnson, a junior guard who nailed three 3-pointers during an 11-3 run in the third quarter, drilled another early in the fourth. Ty'Waun Clark, another sub of the bench, tossed in four baskets, TCC leading scorer Chico Johnson had three and the Irish took advantage of some Findlay turnovers to charge back.Michael Greenlee's 3-pointer trimmed what had been an 18-point deficit to six (52-46) with 4:06 to play, and Clark's basket kept the Irish within striking range at 61-54."They were going to come at us," Rucki said of TCC's second half comeback."We talked at halftime, the last time we played them and took the lead, they just scrambled, they ratted it up defensively. Tonight, they did it from the first possession of the second half. We wanted to run some things but they weren't going to let us run anything."It became what we call ultimate basketball, where you have to move the ball, cut, flash to the ball. Things were getting tighter, but I thought we did a pretty good job."Central Catholic would go on to score 27 points in the fourth quarter. But Max Roth, who set the FHS career steals record earlier this season, scored on a press-breaking pass from Ross, and Findlay converted just enough free throws (7-of-8) in the final 94 seconds to lock it up and etch a memorable footnote on the 2021-22 season."This is really big for us to be a part of, to be able to help coach Rucki get the record," Ross said."For him to go down in (FHS) history if going to be great. I'm really proud to play for him and be a part of everything he's accomplished over the years.Rucki, as usual put tying Bachman's record in perspective."I've got a lot more losses than he does," Rucki dead-panned."We have good tradition here, and stability in the program for 80, 90 years. We're just trying to get a couple more wins. Our goal is to keep getting better every day. We want to be playing our best basketball in a couple of week (when tournaments start)."We don't want to plateau; we want to keep climbing."TOL. CENTRAL CATHOLIC (15-3, 8-3 TRAC)Greenlee 2-8 3-7 7, Thames 2-5 0-0 6, Leach 0-7 2-2 2, Johnson 6-20 0-0 13, S. Lee 1-1 0-0 2, Johnson 7-10 0-0 18, Brenneman 0-1 0-0 0, Bishop 0-0 0-0 0, J. Lee 0-0 0-0 0, Clark 4-4 0-0 8. TOTALS: 22-58 5-9—56.FINDLAY (12-5, 6-5 TRAC)J. Roth 4-6 0-1 10, Ross 1-3 2-2 5, M. Roth 10-21 5-5 26, Bishop 6-9 5-7 21, S. Weihrauch 0-1 0-0 0, Makrancy 0-1 0-0 0, Mueller 1-1 0-0 2, L. Montgomery 1-2 0-0 2, R. Montgomery 0-0 0-0 0. TOTALS: 23-44 12-19—66Tol. Central Catholic 7 4 18 27—56Findlay 15 14 18 19—663-Point GOALS: Findlay 8-19 (J. Roth 2-4, Ross 1-3, M. Roth 1-5, Bishop 4-7); Toledo Central Catholic 7-26 (Greenlee 0-1, Thames 2-4, Leach 0-6, Johnson 4-7, Brenneman 0-1, Johnson 1-5).REBOUNDS: Findlay 39 (S. Weihrauch 7, M. Roth 6, Ross 6, Bishop 5, L. Montgomery 4); Toledo Central Catholic 26 (Leach 7).TURNOVERS: Findlay 14, Toledo Central Catholic 11.JUNIOR VARSITY: Findlay, 51-40.FRESHMAN: Toledo Central Catholic, 56-39.