PREP ROUNDUP: Clay surges past Norwalk in 2nd half

NORWALK — Norwalk led the entire first half Monday night and scored the first two points of the second half to go up nine. But from there, Oregon Clay switched from multiple zone defenses to straight man-to-man in the half court, and in turn, flipped the game around. The Eagles (1-1) proceeded to go on a 23-7 scoring run over six-plus minutes, then turned away the Truckers late for a 52-49 win."We spent a lot of time with our kids preparing for a lot of the different things they did in their first game last Friday," Norwalk head coach Adam Kreischer said. "Between practice on Saturday, as well as on Hudl clips and messages to our guys — and even during the freshman game tonight walking through some stuff — our guys were really prepared and in the right spots against their zones. "If we put them in the right spots, we thought we could make plays, and we did that in the first half, which is why we scored it the way we did." But in the second half, that all stopped as Clay's pressure helped result in nine Norwalk turnovers. "They stopped all zone and pressured us in the half-court, and we didn't do a good enough of a job of being tough enough to handle the pressure and make the right decisions with someone up in our faces," Kreischer said. Mason Gamble led Norwalk with 14 points and seven rebounds, while Ben Rothhaar had 13 points and 10 rebounds. Jordan Parriott added nine points and Garrett Demuth scored eight. Norwalk is off until Saturday, when it stays in non-league play with a trip to Olmsted Falls.OREGON CLAY (1-1) Lucas Jeremy 2-0—6; Dom Pegish 1-1—3; Mason Heinschel 1-5—7; Jay Williams 2-2—6; Ben Roberts 3-0—9; Carson Vincent 1-0—2; Liam Cody 1-0—3; Emir Walker 4-2—8; Hudson Byers 1-1—3. TOTALS NORWALK (1-1) Jordan Parriott 3-1—9; Mason Gamble 6-2—14; Dalton Chapin 2-0—5; Garrett Demuth 3-0—8; Ben Rothhaar 6-1—13. TOTALS 20-4—49. Ore. Clay 8 13 13 18 — 52Norwalk 15 13 5 16 — 49 3-point FGs: (OC) (N) Parriott 2, Demuth 2, Chapin. GIRLS BASKETBALL Firelands 46, Vermilion 36 VERMILION — Firelands erased a halftime deficit with an 18-6 third-quarter surge and went on to beat Vermilion 46-36 in nonconference action. Claire Bartlome led the Sailors (2-2) with 14 points. Abby Gawry added 12. Kendra Hardwick led Firelands with 15 points. Vermilion hosts Edison at 2 p.m. Saturday in its SBC Bay opener. Firelands 5 10 18 13 — 46Vermilion 10 8 6 12 — 36