Norwalk outlasts Clyde for OT win

NORWALK — Norwalk's Kyle Brubaker thought they set basketball back 100 years. Clyde' Brian Heck thought it was about 50 years. Either way you split it, Friday's Sandusky Bay Conference Lake Division contest wasn't pretty. The Truckers made enough plays in the fourth quarter and overtime to top Clyde 32-29. "Ugly, 100 percent," Brubaker said. "Honestly, we found a little bit of grit and toughness in the second half. It still wasn't perfect by any means, but we were able to make big plays in big moments." Brubaker doesn't want to overemphasize any game, but it was a big one for Norwalk (11-4, 6-1) to keep a game back of Bellevue (14-0, 6-0) in the league standings. "We always treat every SBC game as a championship game," Brubaker said. "As we're getting late into the season, we take a look at the schedule. We tell them if they want an opportunity to play for a league championship or for Bellevue to come here and be one game behind them, we have to take care of business. If we do that, that's our reward." Tied at 22 after regulation, Trinity Lazzara scored just 17 seconds into overtime for the Truckers. Taitum Jeffrey split two free throws on the other end for the Fliers (10-6, 2-4), but a score from Emmie Leber put Norwalk up 27-24 with 1:37 to go. Ember Andres split two free throws for Clyde, but the Fliers' lone senior, Reese Daniel, grabbed the offense rebound. That led to Jeffrey scoring and evening the game at 27. From there, Leber and Jeffrey exchanged buckets. Jo Jackson was then fouled for Norwalk, splitting the pair. The Fliers then committed one of their 21 turnovers, giving Norwalk a chance. Lazzara drew the foul and made both free throws, pushing Norwalk ahead 32-29 with 16.4 seconds left. After each team used a timeout, a 3-pointer at the buzzer from Daniel was no good, giving Norwalk the win. "It's not frustrating, but I feel for the girls," Heck said. "We played well enough to win, but we just didn't. We deserved to win that game and we didn't. That's going to happen in games like this. It went back and forth. We took some steps today in terms of limiting runs." The Truckers had just seven points with 1:11 left in the third quarter when Leber and Lazzara took over. Leber hit two free throws then tallied a three-point play to get Norwalk within 14-12 after three quarters. Lazzara opened the fourth quarter with the Truckers' only 3-pointer of the night. She then added a bucket for a 17-14 lead. "She's been playing really well," said Brubaker of Lazzara. "This wasn't her best game, but when the moment was there and we needed her, she was able to have a big fourth quarter and overtime. She was able to play with four fouls. I don't think there's any way she does that for us last year. There's huge benefits to her being a senior." Clyde finally got something going offensively after going almost 11 minutes without scoring. But, the Fliers still trailed 20-16 with 30 seconds left. Jeffrey scored before Jackson missed two free throws. That led to Jeffrey being fouled. She knocked down both to tie the game at 20 with 16.3 seconds left in regulation. Alyssa Gruhlke scored on the other end for Norwalk. The Fliers used a timeout with 3.9 seconds left and drew up just the right play. Jeffrey took a home run pass from Ariah Farrar and was fouled driving to the hoop. She made both free throws with 1.4 seconds left, sending the game to overtime. "It was a read," Heck said. "We thought they'd have a safety. We knew they'd come out full-court, whether it be hard or soft. They didn't have a safety. That was to Ariah and Taitum's credit to read that. There was an opening and they took a chance with it." Clyde led 7-5 after one quarter and 9-7 late in the second quarter when Jeffrey scored. Ray opened the third quarter with the Fliers' lone 3 of the night, giving Clyde a 14-7 lead just over a minute into the third quarter. "Second-chance points were the difference," Heck said. "They're big and they're long and we gave them some second-chance opportunities. They took advantage of it." Jeffrey finished with 18 points and 11 rebounds. "Taitum has moxie," Heck said. "She's a bulldog. I know we don't get much pub because this program hasn't been very successful lately, but she's an all-Ohio player. Period. End of story. I know I might be biased. In my opinion, she's player of the year or at least top-2 in the league." Lazzara topped Norwalk with 12 points while Leber added 11 points and nine rebounds. "She started asserting herself," said Brubaker of Leber. "She was trying to do that in the first half, but maybe not in the way we wanted her to. She was a little bit more in alignment of what we needed in the second half. She just has that attribute to find space and make big plays." CLYDE (10-6, 2-4) Annmarie Davis 0 1-2 1, Taitum Jeffrey 5 8-11 18, Kelsey Ray 2 1-2 6, Reese Daniel 1 0-2 2, Ariah Farrar 0 0-0 0, Ember Andres 1 1-2 3. TOTALS 9 10-18 29 NORWALK (11-4, 6-1) CJ Bennett 0 0-2 0, Alyssa Gruhlke 1 2-4 4, Emmie Leber 4 3-7 11, Trinity Lazzara 4 3-5 12, Jo Jackson 2 1-4 5. TOTALS 11 9-22 32 Clyde 7 4 3 8 7 — 29 Norwalk 5 2 5 10 10 — 32 Three-point goals: Clyde 1 (Ray); Norwalk 1 (Lazzara)