Slow start costs Perkins in loss at Norwalk

NORWALK — In the early going, Perkins boys basketball coach Scott McVeigh is seeing good play in stretches from his team.But unfortunately for the Pirates, one of those stretches was not the first five minutes of Friday's SBC Lake Division game at Norwalk.The Truckers opened the game by scoring the first 11 points in a 5:02 span, and the Pirates could only cut the deficit to five the rest of the way. Norwalk played ahead from start to finish in a 52-35 win to improve to 2-1 overall (1-0 Lake).The Pirates (1-3, 1-1) struggled to a 13-of-39 shooting night, which included 4-of-15 from the 3-point line."We started the game in a double-digit hole against a good team on the road, and you just can't do that," McVeigh said. "It was 11-0 and had a lot to do with our shot selection, I thought. We took some bad shots, and typically bad shots lead to easy baskets for the other team — and I thought that is what happened in those first three or four minutes."Garrett Obringer connected on a right corner 3-pointer, and Garrett Chapin scored a little more than a minute later to put the Truckers up by two possessions for good less than two minutes into the game. When Ryan Sowders and Andrew Mozina dropped in back-to-back 3-pointers, Norwalk was off and rolling to an 11-0 lead with points from four different players at the 2:58 mark of the opening quarter.The Pirates cut the deficit to 13-5 after one quarter, and got the final five points of the first half on a '3' by Dyson Leffler and a driving basket from Zach Voight just before the halftime buzzer. That brought Perkins to within 21-16 at the break.It was again a five-point deficit (24-19) with 6:44 left in the third after Chapin and Voight traded 3-pointers.But from there, Norwalk took control.Obringer scored inside, then Chapin added a pair of free throws. After a Voight basket, Will Gehlhausen hit his only basket for three points, and Chapin added another free throw to put the Truckers up 32-21 with 2:24 left in the third.The Pirates trailed 40-32 after Sam Siegel scored with 6:24 left, but Norwalk closed out the game on a 12-3 scoring run to win comfortably."Once we settled down, we were fine," McVeigh said. "We finished the half really well and got it to a two-possession game, and we battled into the third. But there was a three-minute stretch in the fourth quarter where our shot selection was again not very good."We forced some things and didn't make the extra pass. When we made the pass and played good defense, we got good looks."Norwalk was coming off a 57-55 loss at Shelby (6-0) — a game it led 55-48 with 1:15 left before it all fell apart. Longtime coach Steve Gray was certainly pleased with how his team responded to the tough loss."These kids are trying to do what we want them to do," Gray said. "We have a lot of returning lettermen, but we have a player like Will (Gehlhausen) who is playing point for the first time — and it changes everything."When we get some people going, it's going to bring a spark to our team," he added. "But it was nice to see us come out and establish ourselves right away."Chapin finished with 20 points and 12 rebounds on 7-of-12 shooting to pace the Truckers. He's had two double-doubles and is two rebounds shy of three double-doubles to begin the season.For Perkins, which is off till Thursday when it hosts Tiffin Columbian, Siegel scored 16 of his team's 35 points on 5-of-11 shooting. Voight added nine points."We need to be more consistent in everything we do," McVeigh said. "Consistently playing hard and doing little things. We took four charges tonight because we were where we should have been defensively, but then times we didn't know where our guys were and we gave up easy buckets. I was proud of our effort and thought we competed, but it's about growing up, doing things right all the time and working hard to improve." PERKINS (1-3, 1-1)Sam Siegel 5-5—16; Zach Voight 4-0—9; Sam Oddo 1-0—2; Drake Venerucci 1-0—3; Dyson Leffler 1-0—3; Ryan Butler 1-0—2. TOTALS 13-5—35.NORWALK (2-1, 1-0)Garrett Chapin 7-5—20; Andrew Mozina 3-2—9; Will Gehlhausen 1-0—3; Garrett Obringer 3-2—-9; Ryan Sowders 2-0—5; Demarjae Williams 1-0—2; Kyler Lacy 1-0—2; Jad Oglesby 0-2—2. TOTALS 18-11—52.Perkins 5 11 12 7 — 35Norwalk 13 8 15 16 — 523-point FGs: Perkins 4 (Siegel, Voight, Venerucci, Leffler); Norwalk 5 (Chapin, Obringer, Gehlhausen, Sowders, Mozina). JV: Norwalk, 40-38.Perkins' Drake Venerucci avoids Norwak's Ian Minor's reach-in during the third quarter of Friday's SBC Lake Division game at Norwalk High School.Perkins guard Zach Voight gets past Norwalk defender Garrett Obringer in the third quarter of Friday's SBC Lake Division game at Norwalk High School.