Perkins pushed, but beats Keystone to stay unbeaten

PERKINS TWP. — Perkins is an experienced team with four seniors. Kellen Glass, Sam Schweinfurth, Kash Koch and Levi Groot have been through their fair share of battles for the Pirates over the years. But Perkins had to turn to its junior class — Bryce Davie, Grant Kuhnle and Kaden Legando — in Saturday's tough non-league game. Davie and Kuhnle each scored 12 points, lifting the Division IV No. 3 Pirates to a 53-47 win over Keystone. "I thought our juniors really stepped up," Perkins coach Andy Hoying said. "I thought Bryce had a great game. He made some hustle plays and got a couple steals. He was really going hard to the basket on the other end. Kaden did a good job of guarding either (Liam Goran) or (Colt Cowling). "Grant stepped up tonight knocking down shots in the first half." Perkins had to grind it out late. The Pirates (15-0) never trailed in the final three quarters and were up 48-41 after a score from Davie with 2:41 to go. Both teams missed chances before Goran scored with 1:32 to go. After Groot split two free throws, a 3-pointer from Ty Holzhauer brought Keystone within 49-46. Perkins then committed a turnover, giving the Wildcats an opportunity. Keystone (12-4) missed a pair of 3-pointers with the second miss trickling out of bounds. Perkins got possession with Glass scoring on the ensuing play. Groot and Glass each split a pair of free throws in the final 16 seconds, allowing the Pirates to keep their undefeated record intact. "They're a real solid team with a couple nice players that are difficult to guard in a number of ways," said Hoying of the Wildcats. "I thought we did a good job as a collective group rallying around and finding those guys for 32 minutes. "Late, we had to grind out stops and I thought we had guys really step up. They flew around and contested for the most part." Kuhnle heated up in the second quarter, knocking down three of his four 3-pointers. The last gave the Pirates a 25-16 lead. Keystone answered with the next seven points, capped on a three-point play from Cowling. Looking at just a two-point lead at the break, Perkins tripled it in the blink of an eye. Groot scored and was fouled with two seconds to go in the half. He missed the free throw, but Glass grabbed the offensive rebound and scored as the buzzer sounded. That pushed Perkins up 29-23 at halftime. "I thought we were reeling going into halftime," Hoying said. "With getting that rebound, we had a couple big plays to extend the lead. In a game like that, you need all the buckets you can get. I thought that gave us a boost going into the second half." The Pirates missed their first eight shots from the field in the third quarter, but Keystone scored just one point in that span. Davie scored on back-to-back possessions for a 33-24 advantage. Perkins extended the lead to double digits briefly at 36-26 on Kuhnle's fourth 3 of the night. Keystone again answered, ripping off the next seven points to get within 36-33. Groot scored twice to help Perkins take a 40-35 lead into the fourth quarter. Goran and Cowling each finished with 19 points and seven rebounds for Keystone. "You have to do a great job covering from the 3-point line, but they can get to the rack," Hoying said. "They get out in transition. They were similar to some of the guys in our league. We wanted to make it tough for 32 minutes. We had to keep a hand up and make it as tough as we can." Glass had nine points, Schweinfurth added seven points and eight rebounds and Davie snatched six rebounds for Perkins. The Pirates (6-0 Sandusky Bay Conference Lake Division) have single-game weeks the next two weeks. That starts with a road game at Sandusky (9-7, 5-1) on Friday. "Tonight was a tournament-type game," Hoying said. "It was two really good teams battling it out to the end. Those are the games we need to get ready for the tournament. Those are the games we want. We have seven games left and we have some really good ones coming up." KEYSTONE (12-4) Liam Goran 7 3-4 19, Ty Holzhauer 2 1-2 7, Emory Fedor 1 0-0 2, Bobby Gurich 0 0-0 0, Colt Cowling 6 6-7 19. TOTALS 16 10-13 47 PERKINS (15-0) Kellen Glass 3 1-2 7, Sam Schweinfurth 3 0-0 7, Kash Koch 1 0-0 2, Bryce Davie 5 1-2 12, Levi Groot 3 3-7 9, Kaden Legando 1 0-2 2, Grant Kuhnle 4 0-0 12. TOTALS 21 5-13 53 Keystone 7 16 12 12 — 47 Perkins 11 18 11 13 — 53 Three-point goals: Keystone 5 (Goran 2, Holzhauer 2, Cowling); Perkins 6 (Kuhnle 4, Schweinfurth, Davie)