Perrysburg grabs big lead, downs Trojans

FINDLAY – Perrysburg isn't a run-and-gun team that races up and down the court.Judging by the first 16 minutes of Friday's game with Findlay, though, you never would have guessed that.Perrysburg scored the first 10 points of the game, led 44-17 at the half behind some torrid shooting from 3-point range and remained unbeaten in league play with a 75-39 Northern Lakes League Buckeye Division win over the Trojans."Certainly playing with a lead is a lot easier than playing from behind," said Chris Stein, an 11-year assistant at the school who replaced Dave Boyce as Yellow Jackets head coach this season. "We always want to get off to a fast start, and that was the best start we've had all year."Stein says it's been an easy transition from assistant to head coach. The return of four starters from a team that shared the 2024-2025 NLL title helps. So does the addition to the roster of Tyson Bower, who transferred in after averaging 26.2 points and earning third-team all-Ohio honors playing for Delta last season.Picked to win the NLL's Buckeye Division this season, the Yellow Jackets are living up to the hype. They started the season 5-0, are now 8-2, and are sitting at 3-0 in the league play heading into Tuesday's game with Toledo Whitmer (4-6, 2-1 NLL)."They can put five guys out on the floor that can hurt you and they certainly did that tonight," Findlay coach Ryan Grose said after the Trojans, 2-7 overall, fell to 0-2 in Buckeye Division games."That's what makes them so good. They can put five guys out there that can handle it, shoot it, pass it ...Most times when you play a high school team, there's one or two guys out there where you're, like, 'Hey, we can probably shade off this guy a little bit.'"(Perrysburg) doesn't have that. They are a veteran team. They have all those guys back from a 17-win team that have played together a long time."The continuity they have and the way they play together is impressive. As a basketball coach scouting them and watching them they're kind of fun to watch because they do a lot of really, really good things."Perrysburg did plenty right from the opening tip.In the first 2:48, Ben Pamer, a junior guard, nailed a 3-pointer, 6-foot-5 post Evan Sterling scored inside, Pamer knocked down another '3' and Braylon Foster, a 6-4 junior, got free inside for another lay-in.Foster would add two 3-pointers later in the first period and Adam Gray, Pamer, Bower and Foster all hit treys in the second quarter as Perrysburg's lead swelled to 44-17 at the half.Perrysburg would connect on 8-of-13 3's in the first half and 16-of-24 shots overall. It was execution, not excessive quickness, that fueled the run. The Yellow Jackets continually found the open man and that open man usually buried the shot."We have not shot the ball that well, not to that degree anyway, but we are capable of that, yes," Stein said of Perrysburg's hot hand."We did start to come out of our shell against Napoleon (a 70-23 win on Tuesday). We've been preaching to our guys to make the extra pass, make two extra passes, and you saw that tonight."Foster was the furnace for Perrysburg's heat wave. He missed just one shot all night – a free throw – while making 5-of-5 2-point attempts, 4-of-4 3-pointers and scoring a game-high 23 points.Bower had 15 points off the bench, Pamer had 14 and Gray 10.Hudson Yeager and Beck Garmong both had 10 points for Findlay. Sophomore Cam Stechschulte had eight points and freshman Marcus Bishop had seven.Findlay travels to Sylvania Northview (8-4, 0-2 NLL) on Tuesday, then hosts Fremont Ross (0-7) in an NLL cross-over game on Friday.PERRYSBURG (8-2, 3-0)Gray 4-8 0-0 10, Maxwell 2-2 1-2 5, Pamer 5-7 1-1 14, Sterling 3-4 0-0 6, Foster 9-9 1-2 23,Bower 5-10 4-4 15, DeVries 0-2 0-0 0, Manges 1-3 0-1 2, Seuberling 0-1 0-0 0, Zechman 0-0 0-0 0, Gerkeen 0-0 0-0 0, Kirian 0-1 0-0 0. TOTALS: 29-48 7-10—75.FINDLAY (2-6, 0-2 NLL)Garmong 4-7 0-0 10, Wendt 0-2 0-0 0, Bailey 0-0 0-0 0, Bishop 2-7 2-2 7, Yeager 5-10 0-2 10, Drew 0-1 0-0 0, Crates 0-1 0-0 0, Stillings 0-2 0-0 0, Stechschulte 4-6 0-2 8, Rhoades 2-5, 0-2 4, Thompson 0-1 0-0 0, Whitaker 0-2 0-0 0. TOTALS: 17-43 2-8—39.Perrysburg 24 20 14 8—75Findlay 6 11 14 8—393-POINT GOALS: Perrysburg 10-23 (Gray 2-5, DeVries 0-2, Manges 0-1, Pamer 3-5, Bower 1-3, Sterling 0-1, Foster 4-4, Seuberling 0-1); Findlay 3-12 (Drew 0-1, Garmong 2-5, Wendt 0-2, Bishop 1-4).REBOUNDS: Perrysburg 29 (Sterling 9); Findlay 21 (Yeager 3).TURNOVERS: Perrysburg 9; Findlay 9.JUNIOR VARSITY: Perrysburg, 55-47.