Norwalk tops P.C. to end losing streak

Jan. 8—NORWALK — When he let the ball go, it slipped.

And Norwalk senior Ashton Coe initially knew it was a bad shot. But with the Truckers leading Port Clinton by six with just over a minute left in the third quarter, Coe's "slip up" ended in the form of a banked-in 3-pointer.

"Oh my gosh, I shot it, that slipped so bad — and then it went in," Coe said. "At that point, I knew it must be my night."

Indeed it was, and the Truckers needed Coe's 19-point performance in the worst way. Norwalk stopped a six-game losing streak by outscoring the Redskins (6-4) by 10 points in the second half of Saturday's 60-47 non-league win at Norwalk High School.

The Truckers improved to 4-7 with the win.

During its losing streak, Norwalk lost three games by a combined 11 points, and overall have three road losses to Columbian (9-2, 5-1), Sandusky (10-1, 5-1) and Bellevue (8-2, 5-1) by a total of nine points.

"I feel like we came in with expectations that we didn't know what we were going to be," said Coe, who added three rebounds and three assists to go with his 7-of-12 shooting performance.

"We hit a rough patch here, but we have to keep grinding through it," he said. "We went to Bellevue, Sandusky and Tiffin and had chances to win and hung with them. If we keep fighting, it was going to turn. Now that we did, it feels really good."

Coe scored the final five points of the third quarter to give Norwalk a 45-36 lead.

But the Redskins opened the fourth quarter with consecutive baskets by their top two scorers, Jackson Beasley and Adam Thorbahn, to trail 45-40 with still 7:07 left in the game.

After Ben Rothhaar scored for the Truckers, Port Clinton then got one free throw from Owen Auxter, but rebounded his second foul shot miss. That turned into a 3 by Beasley, and suddenly it was just a 47-44 deficit with 5:58 left in the game.

Rothhaar again scored inside and after a Port Clinton miss, Mason Gamble also made a short jumper with 3:20 left to push the Norwalk lead back up to 51-44.

The Redskins then came up empty, and it turned into a foul shooting contest — one that saw Norwalk go 5-of-7 over the final two minutes of the game. A 3-pointer by Thorbahn with 1:19 left to cut the Norwalk lead to 53-47 was as close as Port Clinton got, with Coe, Gamble and Braedyn Demuth making free throws late.

"With four games in eight days with the stretch we're in to try and stop the bleeding, we needed to be a player-led and a player-driven team," Norwalk head coach Adam Kreischer said. "And we had some kids really step up tonight, not just in the scorebook, but just leadership-wise with an attack mentality.

"Those guys keeping that mentality helped us fight through that stretch when Port Clinton made a run at us," he added. "The way things had been going, it could have gone the wrong way there, but we had some guys really step up in a big way tonight."

Norwalk led 13-10 after one quarter that saw it trail 5-0 just 53 seconds into the game. Demuth, Gamble and Bray Malson combined to score eight straight points, while back-to-back baskets by Demuth and Coe gave the Truckers a 13-8 lead.

The Truckers opened up a 21-14 lead after Dalton Chapin scored and Gamble made a 3 with 5:21 left in the half. However, the Redskins went on a 9-2 run to tie the game at 23 with 1:08 left, highlighted by consecutive scores from Travis Yarnell.

Trailing 30-25, Port Clinton then scored seven straight points in the third quarter to take a 32-30 lead at the 5:29 mark. After Thorbahn scored, Yarnell split a pair of foul shots. On the second miss, Beasley got the rebound and scored to give his team the lead.

But that lasted less than a minute.

Coe scored on a runner in the lane, which started a 15-4 scoring run that was capped by Coe's banked in 3 and a layup with just 0.8 seconds left in the quarter.

With Gamble adding a career-high 18 points and six rebounds, he and Coe combined for 37 points for the Truckers. The pair entered Saturday combining to average 15.1 points per game.

"Before the season, do I have them at 37 combined points? Quite possibly," Kreischer said. "Those are two guys who have to step up for us. We're a whole different team if those two plays with an attack mentality, because Braedyn has been there for us all year. Ben has been there all year as far as aggressiveness, competitiveness and drive.

"If those other two guys come on board as far as offensive aggression and attack mentality ... now we have four guys out there attacking," he added. "And we're a different team when that happens."

Rothhaar added eight points and 13 rebounds for Norwalk, with Demuth contributing seven points, four rebounds and four assists.

Things won't let up for the Truckers on Tuesday when they host Columbian.

"I just like my kids and my team," Kreischer said. "We fight and play hard, then practice and get better. None of us are happy with our record right now, but it's a tough league with a tough team coming up on Tuesday.

"I've never taken Zzzquil in my life, but I have to imagine it feels somewhat like this ... I'm finally going to get some sleep (tonight), and I think my wife will be a little happier."

PORT CLINTON (6-4)

Nolan Chambers 2-0—5; Jackson Beasley 5-0—12; Owen Auxter 0-1—1; Adam Thorbahn 9-0—20; Travis Yardell 3-1—7. TOTALS 20-2—47.

NORWALK (4-7)

Ashton Coe 7-4—19; Mason Gamble 8-1—18; Baedyn Demuth 2-3—7; Bray Malson 2-0—4; Dalton Chapin 2-0—4; Ben Rothhaar 3-2—8. TOTALS 24-10—60.

P. Clinton 10 13 13 11 — 47

Norwalk 13 13 19 15 — 60

3-point FGs: (PC) Beasley 2, Thorbahn 2, Chambers; (N) Coe, Gamble.

JV: Norwalk won.