Defense carries Margaretta past Willard in Bay battle

WILLARD — Ray Neill faced the dilemma many coaches do with the lead. How early is too early? With his Margaretta girls basketball team leading 33-30 at Willard with sole possession of first place in the Sandusky Bay Conference Bay Division on the line Saturday afternoon, Neill had seen enough. The Polar Bears went into their spread offense with just under three minutes to play and survived a turnover and missed layup by the Crimson Flashes that would have cut the Polar Bears' lead to one point. Instead, Margaretta got the rebound and put away the game at the free throw line for a 36-30 win at Robert L. Haas Gymnasium. The Bears (9-3, 4-0) held the Flashes (10-2, 3-1) scoreless over the final 3:50 of the game. "I don't think we're being boisterous by saying we're pretty good defensively," Neill said. "And if we do that, hopefully we can manufacture enough offense to win games. We did that today. This was a big first round conference game and a huge win for us." Trailing 25-14 after Margaretta outscored them 20-7 in the second quarter, the Flashes started their comeback early in the third quarter. Reese Bedingfield opened the scoring for Willard in the second half, then teammate Camryn Wiers made her second 3-pointer of the game to put the Flashes in striking distance at 25-19 with 4:37 left in the third quarter. The Bears appeared to regain control when Raegan Heck scored three straight times around a Willard basket from Leah Weiss. That put Margaretta up 31-21 with 3:10 left in the third. Corrin Gettys scored off a Margaretta turnover to start the fourth, and the Flashes trailed just 31-28 with 6:34 remaining. Cassidy Lane scored down low for Margaretta to send Willard into a timeout with 4:07 left and down 33-28. Gettys scored again for the Flashes with 3:50 left, but they did not score again. Trailing 33-30, Willard missed a layup in transition and turned over the basketball down 34-30 with under a minute remaining. It then became a matter of fouling and putting the Bears at the line. Margaretta's Ellyse Schaefer split two sets of free throws with 28.7 seconds and 4.8 seconds remaining for the final margin. "We were going to our spread layup, and one time we almost got it, then the next time we wanted to use another time management set and we made a bad pass," Neill said. "You can't just assume a girl will be wide open and we needed to make eye contact there, then we just went back to a spread attack after that." The Bears scored more than half of their points in a 20-point second quarter. Kenadie Saylor opened the quarter with a game-tying basket. Grace Paseka made her second 3 and Heck scored two straight times with a basket and two foul shots at the 3:52 mark to put her team up 10. "It makes it a little easier when you're making shots," Neill said of the second quarter. "We work extremely hard to try to get better and more consistent at that. It was good to see that for some length of time in a big game." Heck had 12 points and six rebounds for Margaretta. Lane added seven points and five rebounds after she missed some time late in the first quarter and early in the second quarter with an ankle injury. The Polar Bears have a big non-league test on Tuesday at Norwalk (10-0). After losing at Perkins on Jan. 2 and Saturday against the Bears, things get no easier for the Crimson Flashes when they host Bellevue (11-1) in a non-league game Wednesday. "We had opportunities late," Willard coach Alaina Bedingfield said. "Defensively we picked it up a notch and were able to get the turnovers we needed and had shots and open looks at the hoop that we just weren't able to convert. "But credit their defense, and we're going to get back to work and try again." MARGARETTA (9-3, 4-0) Julia Berg 1-0—2, Grace Paseka 2-0—6, Cassidy Lane 3-1—7, Ellyse Schaefer 1-2—4, Kenadie Saylor 2-0—5, Raegan Heck 4-4—12. TOTALS 13-7—36 WILLARD (10-2, 3-1) Camryn Wiers 2-0—6, Reese Bedingfield 2-1—5, Leah Weiss 2-1—5, Caitlyn Weaver 1-0–3, Emelia Tallman 3-0—7, Corrin Gettys 2-0—4. TOTALS 12-2—30 Margaretta 5 20 6 5 — 36Willard 7 7 12 4 — 30 Three-point goals: Margaretta 3 (Paseka 2, Saylor); Willard 4 (Wiers 2, Weaver, Tallman)