Trojans defense shines in win over Roughriders

Findlay girls basketball coach Brian Rosendale made no secret of what the key will be for his team this year. "Our defense, that's what's gonna carry us this year," Rosendale said after watching the Trojans rout St. Marys, 47-23 Thursday night. "Offense will come and go, defense will always be there." It was there against the Roughriders. Findlay forced St. Marys into three turnovers in the game's first 80 seconds, led 13-3 at after one period, then rolled from there to start the season 2-0. The Trojans controlled the second quarter most of the way. A 3 by Olivia Mangas from the wing put FHS up 17-3 with 6:15 left in the half. A layup by Zoe McCormick at the pushed the Findlay advantage to 22-3 at the 4:17 mark. The Roughriders fell to 1-2. "That was our theme against Kalida; we started off awful, we did the same thing here," said St. Marys coach Scott Jordan. "The 1-2-2 press gave us some fits. We dribbled into traps, and obviously, it doesn't help when you don't make shots." St. Marys had 10 miscues in the first half, and didn't get a field goal in the second quarter until Ella Jacobs converted a jumper with 1:14 remaining. But the Roughriders had a nice finish to the half. A 3 by Sophia Menker cut the Trojans lead to 24-11. That was the score at the break. St. Marys had some momentum. But in the third, Findlay stopped it cold. Mangas had a layup and converted two free throws, then Sophia Myers added a three-point play to increase the Trojans' lead to 31-11. Findlay was up 35-11 before Jacobs broke through with a short jumper with 16 seconds left in the period. It was the Roughriders' only points of the third. "We basically shut them out to zero, I was a little disappointed we gave up the two points at the end of third quarter," Rosendale said. "I was telling (Jordan) that they run a lot of good stuff. They run a lot of backdoors, they run a lot of ball screens. I thought our girls did a good job of going through our gameplan and bumping out on those different screens." Findlay was paced by Mangas, who had 13 points, and by Myers, who finished with 11 points and 10 rebounds. "Every game is going to be different," Rosendale said. "I thought Mangas and Sophia played well tonight. The rest of them did well too, though. We had pretty balanced scoring all the way through the lineup." Madilyn Stechschulte registered six points for the Trojans; Katelyn Stechschulte and Ryan Boes scored five each. For St. Marys, Ella Jacobs put up seven points and seven rebounds, both team highs. Findlay will open Northern Lakes League play tonight when it travels to Springfield. ST. MARYS (1-2) Jacobs 3-1—7; Allemeier 1-0—3; Menker 1-0—3; Nuss 2-0—5; Dorsten 1-0—2; Rable 0-2—2; Ott 0-1—1. TOTALS: 8-39—4-10—23. FINDLAY (2-0) Boes 2-0—5; Arredondo 1-0—3; McCormick 2-0—4; K. Stechschulte 2-1—5; M. Stechschulte 2-2—6; Olivia Mangas 4-2—13; Myers 4-3—11. TOTALS: 17-37—8-17—47. St. Marys &emsp;&emsp;3 &emsp;&emsp;8 &emsp;&emsp;2 &emsp;&emsp;10 – 23 Findlay 13 &emsp;&emsp;11 &emsp;&emsp;11 &emsp;&emsp;12 –47 3-POINT GOALS: St. Marys 3-12 (Allemeier, Nuss, Menker). Findlay 5-12 (Mangas 3, Arredondo, Boes). REBOUNDS: St. Marys 34 (Jacobs 7); Findlay 29 (Myers 10) TURNOVERS: St. Marys 19; Findlay 10. JV: St. Marys 36-29.