Perkins shuts down Norwalk

NORWALK -- Defense wins championships. While Perkins is out of the running for a Sandusky Bay Conference Lake Division title, it played spoiler Thursday night at Norwalk. The Pirates limited Norwalk throughout, using a second-half surge to top the Truckers, 49-35. "I think we came out and wanted to be physical," said Perkins' Camryn VanVlerah. "It's always fun playing Norwalk. We knew when we got the lead at the end of the first half that we wanted to keep it going and keep our energy up." Perkins (11-9, 6-3 SBC Lake) trailed 13-10 after one quarter and were down 19-15 after Kenzie Smith made two free throws. But, the Pirates made things difficult for Norwalk the rest of the way. First, the Truckers went scoreless the final 4:52 of the half after Smith's free throws. Meanwhile, buckets by Jordyn Brunner, Ellie Manion and VanVlerah gave Perkins a 22-19 lead at halftime. Lucy Schlotterer scored out of the break for Norwalk, but the Truckers never led again. Kendall Zeiher drilled a pair of 3-pointers to put the Truckers down 32-24. "We defended and rebounded," Perkins coach Ryan Orshoski said. "We really wanted to stay grounded. We wanted to stay tied together. The best defensive teams help the least because they keep their girl in front of them. I thought we were able to do that and hold them to one shot." From there, Emmie Leber split two free throws and Alyssa Gruhlke connected on Norwalk's only triple of the night to get back with four points. But, Perkins again finished a quarter strong. VanVlerah made two free throws and then scored for a 36-28 lead. Abby Koenig dropped in a bucket for the Truckers, but VanVlerah's three-point lead pushed the lead to 39-30. Things continued to spiral out of control for Norwalk early in the fourth quarter. Koenig split two free throws to open the scoring, but Perkins sprinted off the next 10 points. Buckets from Manion, VanVlerah, and Zeiher and two free throws by Haylie Brunner made it 47-31. Zeiher scored again to seal the Perkins win. "Give all credit to them," Norwalk coach Brock Manlet said. "They played hard and they were more physical. They dictated tempo. They did everything they wanted to do and we didn't respond. They came ready to play and executed their game plan and they beat us." The loss drops Norwalk to 16-5 overall and 7-2 in SBC Lake play. The Truckers now have to defeat Bellevue (15-5, 8-1) next Wednesday at home to grab a share of their first-ever league title. "Right now, we're trying to rack our brains about what we have to do to get better," Manlet said. "The biggest mystery to me is on the defensive end. I don't know what's happened to us defensively. We've kind of lost that spark we had for a while. We have to find a way to get it back and get it back quickly." Norwalk was good defensively early, but struggled the rest of the way. The Truckers forced six Perkins turnovers in the first quarter, but just five the rest of the way. Two of those five turnovers the final three quarters came after the Pirates were up 49-31 in the fourth quarter. "We have been a turnover-prone team," Orshoski said. "We felt like that's put us in a hole in some games this year, especially Bellevue last game. When we control the controllables and play together, we're a tough team." Norwalk topped Perkins in the first meeting, 45-40, back on Jan. 5 in Sandusky. "We were able to string together some stops," Orshoski said. "Norwalk missed some shots they normally make. We needed that. We were able to capitalize on some drives to the basket." The Truckers struggled with turnovers too. After two in the first quarter, Norwalk committed four turnovers in each of the middle two quarters. "I think as we got down, I don't know if I want to say we panicked, but we got into a mode where we didn't stay within our offense," Manlet said. "It was going and trying to score, which we had to do because we had to try to get back in the game. I think we might have forced some things we normally wouldn't." Koenig's eight points and six rebounds led Norwalk. Leber added seven points and Schlotterer had five rebounds. "We didn't hit shots," Manlet said. "We get a lot off of our defense and we got absolutely nothing off of our defense tonight. They basically spread us out and iso'ed our girls and it was a 'stop us if you can.' "We didn't get enough stops tonight." VanVlerah paced Perkins with 17 points and seven rebounds while Zeiher added 15 points and six rebounds. "That's our identity," Orshoski said. "We do have a bit of a two-headed monster there with Kendall and Cam. They were good tonight. Kendall was a great ballhandler for us and picked her spots to get to the basket. Then we were able to find Cam in the paint." PERKINS Ellie Manion 3 1-2 8, Maggie Farley 0 1-2 1, Haylie Brunner 1 2-2 4, Camryn VanVlerah 6 5-6 17, Kendall Zeiher 5 3-5 15, Jordyn Brunner 1 0-0 2, McKaylah Hartley 1 0-1 2. TOTALS 17 12-18 49 NORWALKHailey Rinner 0 0-0 0, Emma Berger 1 0-0 2, Abby Koenig 3 2-6 8, Kenzie Smith 2 3-4 , Cada Ehrenberg 0 0-0 0, Emmie Leber 3 1-2 7, Lucy Schlotterer 1 2-2 4, Trinity Lazzara 2 0-0 4, Alyssa Gruhkle 1 0-0 3. TOTALS 13 8-14 35 Perkins 10 12 17 10 -- 49Norwalk 13 6 11 5 -- 35 Three-point goals: Perkins 3 (Zeiher 2, Manion); Norwalk 1 (Gruhlke)