Margaretta girls coach Ray Neill gets 300th win

CASTALIA — For the third time in less than a year, Ray Neill has a milestone win. This time, it is 300 wins as a head basketball coach. He got it as Division VI No. 2 Margaretta took care of business against Norwalk, topping the Truckers 48-28 in Sandusky Bay Conference crossover action Tuesday. Neill coached at Perkins for many years before taking over as the Polar Bears head coach. He thanked the administration, assistant coaches and players at Perkins as well as those at Margaretta. "It means my wife has allowed me to go coach a game for a long time," Neill said. "It means I've been in the locker room for a whole lot of players and really good people. I want to thank them and my assistant coaches. To get it done at my alma mater is also pretty special." Margaretta (11-1) was solid from the get-go. After Norwalk (6-4) got the first point of the game, the Polar Bears scored the next 10. Ashlyn Kingsborough and Lanie Schaefer hit 3s before four straight points from Cassidy Lane. Later, Renna Keller hit a 3 as Margaretta went up 16-4 after one quarter. "I applaud our girls for coming out and playing well," Neill said. "It's our first game playing without Thea Wybensinger, who has been a big part of our success so far. We had some ladies step up and get it done tonight." The Truckers made just one field goal in the first quarter compared to seven turnovers. Norwalk struggled to take care of the ball more in the second quarter as Margaretta continued to play well. The Polar Bears' run reached 13-0 after a triple from Keller and two free throws by Kenadie Saylor. The Truckers had seven more turnovers in the second quarter. "At halftime, we had ourselves for 14 turnovers and 13 shot attempts," Norwalk coach Kyle Brubaker said. "That's never a good recipe for success. It's difficult in a game like this and credit to Margaretta for being in good positions defensively. There's times where we make bad decisions and times where people are wide open and we miss them." Margaretta led 25-9 at the break. Ellyse Schaefer opened the second half with a 3-pointer. The Polar Bears didn't commit any turnovers themselves in the middle two quarters. "Big win for us," Neill said. "The girls are giving us everything they've got in practice. We're working each day to get better. We're asking them to allow us to coach them. We hope good players understand there's some things they can get better at and allow us to address those things." Keller hit a third 3-pointer in the fourth quarter, finishing the night with nine points. "We challenged Renna 10 days ago," said Neill of the freshman. "We told her the things she was doing in practice are very good, but we needed her to go dominate some JV basketball. We wanted her to show people who she was. With that, that'll allow us as coaches to give her those varsity minutes that we hope she's excited about." Defensively, the Polar Bears were tough. Norwalk made just 10 of 41 shots including 2 of 10 from 3. The Truckers took better care of the ball in the second half, finishing with 16 turnovers. "We're coaching it up and watching a lot of film," Neill said. "We're breaking down those defensive possessions where we're not being good. We're pointing it out to people and they're being receptive to that part of coaching. We were good tonight, but we can be ready." It was by far the toughest two-game stretch of the season for Norwalk. The Truckers lost to Division IV No. 1 Bellevue last Friday before Tuesday's game against Margaretta. "We knew we were coming into a tough stretch," Brubaker said. "We're facing some great teams and credit to them for being great teams. Our biggest worry is internally. We don't feel like we're competing for all 32 minutes. "We know we're not playing our best basketball." Trinity Lazzara led the Truckers with 10 points while Jo Jackson had seven points and five rebounds. Alyssa Gruhlke added six points and seven rebounds for the Truckers, who host Perkins on Friday. "We're not playing good, but all of our goals are in front of us if you work towards them," Brubaker said. "We'll take this as kind of the midway point. What's done is done. We'll learn from it and move on and get to work. "It's never easy in our league. We have a big game Friday and we'll see how we respond." Saylor led Margaretta with 10 points while Lanie Schaefer also scored nine points. Neill reached 500 wins as a baseball coach last April before crossing the 800 combined wins plateau in November. Now, he sits with a 300-100 record as a basketball coach ahead of Saturday's game against Port Clinton. "I'm blessed to still be doing what I'm doing," Neill said. "I have family members that understand what I love to do. I've had really good assistant coaches all along. It goes back to players. "Players win games. I just supervise a little bit." NORWALK (6-4) CJ Bennett 0 0-0 0, Alyssa Gruhlke 2 1-2 6, Emmie Leber 1 3-6 5, Trinity Lazzara 4 2-3 10, Jo Jackson 3 0-0 7, Maddie Gamble 0 0-2 0. TOTALS 10 6-13 28 MARGARETTA (11-1) Lillian Belak 1 0-0 2, Lanie Schaefer 3 2-2 9, Cassidy Lane 2 3-4 7, Ellyse Schaefer 1 0-0 3, Kenadie Saylor 3 4-6 10, Ashlyn Kingsborough 2 0-0 6, Addyson Fitzthum 1 0-0 2, Renna Keller 3 0-0 9. TOTALS 16 9-12 48 Norwalk 4 5 9 10 — 28 Margaretta 16 9 13 10 — 48 Three-point goals: Norwalk 2 (Gruhlke, Jackson); Margaretta 7 (Keller 3, Kingsborough 2, L. Schaefer, E. Schaefer)