Huron loses late lead, falls 52-47 to Calvert

HURON — Huron felt that it was close to taking control in Tuesday's Sandusky Bay Conference crossover boys basketball matchup against Tiffin Calvert. The Senecas had other ideas. Huron led by seven points early in the fourth quarter, but made only one basket in the final four minutes as Calvert pulled out a 52-47 win. "We were probably one-to-two stops away the whole fourth quarter," Huron coach Toby Miller said. "Every timeout I was telling we were one or two away and we just couldn't quite get that stop. They hung around long enough. "Credit to (Calvert's) Grady Otterbacher and Logan Ritzler. They made great plays down the stretch. They just kept fighting." Otterbacher's 3-pointer with 55 seconds to play gave Calvert a 48-45 lead — its first lead since early in the third quarter. Huron (2-6) could only manage a bucket from Quentin Conway in the final four minutes. That basket cut Calvert's lead to 50-47 with 26 seconds to play. Calvert (3-2) cliched the game from the free throw line as Vincenzo Lyons was 4 for 4 in the final 33 seconds. Ritzler finished with 14 points for Calvert, including a 3 after a Huron turnover that tied the game at 45 with 2:13 to play. Calvert finished the game on a 13-4 run. "We like the structure and organization of setting screens and getting people open," Calvert coach Jon Otterbacher said. 'I think that loosened them up in the fourth quarter and allowed us to make some open shots and get to the basket better." Calvert was just 6 for 26 from the field in a slow first half, but trailed only 20-18. "A lot of that goes to our effort and energy on defense," coach Otterbacher said. "We wanted to take away as many easy looks as possible. (Huron) did a good job in the second half of exploiting us, our size and quickness, but in the first half we were able to stay close enough." Huron increased its lead to 30-25 on a Conway 3-pointer and finished the third quarter up 37-31 when Nixon Dike swished a last-second 3. A Dike free throw gave Huron a 38-31 lead early in the fourth quarter, but the Tigers committed six of their 16 turnovers in the final eight minutes. The Senecas turned it over six times in the entire game. Dike, a 5-foot-11 sophomore, finished with 12 points and 15 rebounds. Parker Schafer, a 6-5 senior, had 17 points and seven boards for the Tigers. Schafer's aggressive drive to the rim gave Huron a 43-39 lead. He scored 12 of his points in the second half as he did damage close to the basket. "He's been really good for us the last couple games," Miller said. "Nixon Dike played great. He crashes the glasses. We've needed Nixon very badly this year. We knew this was coming and hopefully he can build off this." Huron slowed the pace late and had trouble getting good looks against the quick Senecas. "Some of that was fatigue," Miller said. "We're missing two kids out with injuries and we're playing just six. We got in a little foul trouble, too, which took our aggression away. We weren't as aggressive defensively because we were afraid of fouling. "It was kind of the perfect storm where you need to step up and make a couple plays and we could not do it." CALVERT (3-2) Grady Otterbacher 4 2-3 12, Logan Ritzler 6 1-4 14, Max Herbert 1 0-0 2, Logan Demoss 3 0-2 8, Vincenzo Lyons 4 6-6 14, Tucker Coleman 0 0-2 0, Drew Meyer 1 0-0 2. TOTALS 19 9-17 52 HURON (2-6) Caleb Staley 2 0-0 4, Quentin Conway 5 0-2 12, Nixon Dike 4 1-2 12, Jack Raglow 1 0-0 2, Parker Schafer 7 3-3 17. TOTALS 19 4-7 47 Calvert 11 7 13 21 — 52 Huron 8 12 17 10 — 47 Three-point goals: Calvert 5 (Otterbacher 2, Demoss 2, Ritzler); Huron 5 (Dike 3, Conway 2)