OTSEGO – Sometimes athletic success can carry over from one sport to another and that’s exactly what has happened for Perrysburg.
The Yellow Jackets have six players on their roster who played together on their state championship volleyball team.
Knowing how to win helped Perrysburg beat Lima Senior 79-64 in girls basketball district semifinal action Thursday at Otsego High School.
Perrysburg (22-1) created match-up problems for the Spartans, as they started 6-foot-1 junior Sarah Baer and brought in 6-1 sixth man Allex Brown and Lima Senior was unable to stop them.
Baer jump started the Yellow Jackets offense with 12 first-quarter points and Brown added seven, as Perrysburg jumped out to a 29-17 lead after one quarter of play.
“We have struggled all year defending good post players and Perrysburg has two,” Lima Senior coach Vince Halliday said. “We got behind and just could never catch up.”
The Spartans (15-10) did close to within 29-21 early in the second quarter, but Perrysburg responded with an 11-0 run and took a 45-27 lead to the half.
The Spartans came out fired up in the third quarter and tried to press full court, but Perrysburg passed over the pressure and continued to pound the ball inside to Baer and Brown, who totaled eight and four points, respectively, in the quarter.
Lima outscored the Yellow Jackets by an 18-17 margin in the quarter thanks to India Benjamin, who posted seven third-quarter points.
The Spartans would go on to outscore Perrysburg in the fourth quarter by a 19-17 margin, but the halftime deficit was just too much to overcome.
Baer finished the night with a game-high 24 points on 11-of-18 shooting from the floor and Brown chipped in with 22 points on 8-of-16 shooting. Lindy DeLong joined the duo in double figures as she added 12 points to the Perrysburg column.
The Yellow Jackets shot 52 percent in the game as they hit on 29-of-55 thanks to layups and putbacks.
Lima got strong performances from Stacia Allen with 20 points, Benjamin who added 16, Rion Thompson with 15 points, and Essence Cowan who had 12 for the Spartans.
The Spartans finished the contest connecting on 23-of-59 from the floor for 38 percent.
“They handled our pressure and got some scoring opportunities at their end,” Halliday said. “I’m proud of my kids who played really hard tonight and helped take our program to a new level but Perrysburg was better.”
Perrysburg won the battle of the boards by a 33-22 margin but committed 15 turnovers to only 11 for Lima.
Despite the loss, the future looks bright for the Spartans, as Allen was the only senior on the squad and Halliday looks for bigger and better things to come.
