Willard defense shuts down PC

PORT CLINTON — Willard's defense was the difference. The Crimson Flashes found themselves tied after three quarters on the road against Port Clinton. Willard played possibly its best defensive quarter of the young season, limiting the Redskins to two points in the fourth quarter Friday. In the mean time, the offense executed for the Flashes down the stretch as Willard topped PC, 49-39, in a key Sandusky Bay Conference Bay Division win. The Flashes improved to 6-0 overall and 2-0 in league play. "I'm super proud," said Willard junior Reese Bedingfield, who tallied 16 points and 14 rebounds. "This is my favorite team that I've played with in high school. Everyone is super close and super fun. We have team prayer before every game to get us in that mindset to be thankful to be able to play basketball." Willard limited Port Clinton (5-2, 0-2) to just two points over the final 9:10 of the game. "We were really trying to keep them guessing," Willard coach Alanna Bedingfield said. "We switched up and ran three different defenses. We were trying to catch them off-guard. We knew we had a lot to handle. They have some really great shooters and (Erieyonna) Buckley on the inside who does a really good job." Willard was able to disrupt the Port Clinton offense by face-guarding freshman point guard Thea Wybensinger and sharpshooter Olivia Spencer at different times. "Those two are really good shooters and their offense runs around them," coach Bedingfield said. "The more we could prevent from them getting the ball, the better it was for us. Our girls did a really good job of preventing their point guard from getting the ball and made things hard for her. I think that threw their offense off a little bit." The Redskins got the last five points of the third quarter on an Alana Zibert 3 and two free throws by Wybensinger. Tied at 37 after three quarters, Willard dominated the fourth quarter on both ends of the floor. Bedingfield split two free throws to open the scoring and later, Emelia Tallman scored. Two free throws by Bedingfield pushed the lead to 42-37 and forced Port Clinton into a timeout. The Redskins got their lone score of the quarter out of the break as Wybensinger drove to the hoop for a layup, but it was the only make for Port Clinton on 10 field goal attempts in the fourth quarter. Bedingfield answered with a coast-to-coast bank shot that kept Willard up 44-39 with 3:56 to play. No matter what the Redskins did on the offensive end, it came up empty. Port Clinton also had seven turnovers over the final eight minutes. "I think we got very tired at the end of the game," PC coach Kevin Belden said. "Give credit to Willard. They got up into us and had a good gameplan. They're fast and athletic. They do a lot of good things. I think we wore down and took a few shots we should not have." Leah Weiss and Camryn Wiers added buckets to help Willard put away the win. The Flashes out-rebounded Port Clinton 39-30 and knocked in 70 percent of their free throws. Willard scored the first five points of the game, but Port Clinton responded with the next nine and led 15-9 after one quarter. The Flashes couldn't buy a bucket from the outside in the first half, missing all 10 3-pointers they attempted. Despite the icy shooting, Willard trailed just 19-18 at halftime. "Those are good shots for us because they're in our offense," coach Bedingfield said. "We weren't coming down and launching 3s. They were within our offense. I told them to keep shooting because they'd go in. We did hit a few. It wasn't a great shooting night for us, but we did get the ball on the inside." There were seven lead changes in the first three minutes of the second half, but the Flashes were the first to pull away a bit. Willard scored seven straight points, capped on a Wiers steal and score, to go up 32-27 with 3:41 left in the third quarter. "We had a couple silly turnovers," Belden said. "They were really getting after Thea to not let her bring up the ball up. We had some uncharacteristic turnovers. Willard forced a lot of those turnovers too with their athleticism." The Redskins played without Olivia Emerson, who Belden expects to have back next week. "That affected us majorly," Belden said. "Olivia Emerson does a little bit of everything for us. I'll be honest. She would've guarded Reese and we had to matchup differently all night not having her. She's a steady presence. Not having her was hard." Zibert led Port Clinton with 11 points while Wybensinger scored eight points. "In under a week, we had to play Margaretta, Gibsonburg, and Willard," Belden said. "That's three teams that I'm pretty sure will win 15-plus games this year and compete for sectional, district, and league titles. That's three really good teams. That's not an easy stretch." Corrin Gettys and Tallman each scored 11 points for Willard. "I thought we used our height well," coach Bedingfield said. "We kept preaching to get it to the inside when we could. Buckley is a great presence in there, so we were trying to avoid her when she was in there. Reese did a really good job attacking tonight. She felt confident and even though she missed some shots early, she found it later." WILLARD (6-0, 2-0)Camryn Wiers 3 0-1 6, Reese Bedingfield 5 5-6 16, Leah Weiss 2 0-0 4, Caitlyn Weaver 0 0-1 0, Emelia Tallman 4 2-3 11, Corrin Gettys 4 3-4 11. TOTALS 18 11-16 49PORT CLINTON (5-2, 0-2)Christiona Fenton 2 3-6 8, Olivia Spencer 2 1-2 6, Madelyn Cornell 1 0-0 3, Thea Wybensinger 3 2-2 8, Erieyonna Buckley 2 0-2 4, Alana Zibert 4 0-0 11. TOTALS 14 6-12 39Willard 9 9 19 12 - 49Port Clinton 15 4 18 2 - 39Three-point goals: Willard 2 (Bedingfield, Tallman); Port Clinton 5 (Zibert 3, Spencer, Cornell)