Roberts' 29 points, Scruggs' double-double pace Clyde

CLYDE — The magic number for Clyde seems to be 70 points. For the eighth time in as many wins, that's the point total the Fliers hit in a win. JeCori Roberts scored a career-high 29 points while Michael Scruggs tallied a double-double in Clyde's 72-61 Sandusky Bay Conference crossover win over Huron on Monday. Roberts, a freshman, starts alongside four seniors. The group has meshed together as the season has gone on. "I think it says a lot about our seniors that they're willing to allow him to be part of that group," Fliers coach Jared Shetzer said. "They are a little bit hard on him. He could easily put his head down and pout, but he doesn't. He's been very coachable for us." Clyde was in for a battle as halftime approached. The Tigers (6-12) rallied from a nine-point deficit in the first quarter to tie the game. A 3-pointer from Grant Periat evened the game at 28. Clyde finished the half a bit stronger, getting triples from Roberts and Karcen Garner to take a 36-31 lead into halftime. The Fliers were able to slowly build on their advantage in the third quarter. Scruggs scored before a 3 from Roberts made it 41-35. After Nixon Dike scored for Huron, tallies from Aric Kauble and Roberts pushed the lead to eight. Later, Roberts hit a 3, Chase Castle knocked down two free throws and Scruggs scored on a putback to make it 56-41 after three quarters. Clyde continued to play tough defensively, forcing 22 turnovers on the night, including at least five in each quarter. Huron had a lot of its offense go through Parker Schafer, but even then, the Fliers played tough. Castle scored off of an offensive rebound before Roberts' fourth triple pushed the Clyde lead to 64-46. Schafer tried to keep Huron in the game with a three-point play and two free throws, but Clyde was game for the challenge. Scruggs scored, hit a 3-pointer and Roberts' last 3 gave Clyde a 72-51 lead with 3:27 to play. "Shetzer preached that we needed to play defense and try as hard as we could on the defensive end of the floor," Roberts said. "Our defense really creates our offense. The harder we play defense, the more we can contribute on the offensive end." Schaefer finished with 22 points and 12 rebounds to lead Huron. "I thought Parker was great," Tigers coach Toby Miller said. "He battled his butt off against multiple strong bodies. He was our anchor offensively and defensively." Clyde caught fire early, jumping out to a 7-0 lead. Oscar Webb hit a 3 before tallies from Roberts and Scruggs forced a Huron timeout just 74 seconds in. "Proud of our kids," Miller said. "They fought hard until the very end. You can't come out on the road and start off down 7-0." The Fliers pushed the advantage to 14-5 five minutes in before Huron got going. Paul Murray, Schafer and Periat each scored to bring the Tigers within 16-13. Clyde had the halftime lead despite making just 3 of 18 3-pointers in the opening 16 minutes. "I just think we locked in defensively," said Shetzer of the second half. "We started taking shots. I think we settled in the first half for a lot of 3s. I think that was part of Huron's game plan. Hats off to them for making us do some of the things we did. We came in at halftime and talked about their zone and talked about how we needed to penetrate gaps." Webb, who played with a bandage over his left eye due to stitches from a collision in Saturday's game against Willard, finished with eight points. But, he did what Clyde needed him to do in an effort to inch closer to getting back to .500. "Hats off to Oscar Webb," Shetzer said. "That kid takes home the ultimate warrior belt tonight that we give out. He just did a little bit of everything for us tonight. He's usually asked to guard the other team's best player and then come down and handle the ball for 32 minutes. I was very, very proud of Oscar tonight. He deserves a lot of credit for keeping us in it tonight." Scruggs finished with 11 points and 14 rebounds while Castle had 10 points and seven rebounds. Roberts added eight rebounds for Clyde. "Michael is a warrior," Shetzer said. "He's an undersized post player, but he has strong hands. He really reads rebounds. When he's locked in to getting a board, I'll take him over guys that are four or five inches taller. He does a great job with his body positioning." Clyde (2-5 SBC Lake Division) hosts Div. IV No. 8 Perkins (15-1, 6-1) on Friday. The Fliers look to play spoiler against Perkins, who is tied for the league lead with Sandusky. "I can't wait to play them at home," Scruggs said. "I've been waiting for this. We're really trying to steal one from them. I want to go out and be as physical as I can with their big guys." HURON (6-12) Caleb Staley 2 2-2 6, Nixon Dike 4 2-4 12, Jack Raglow 2 0-0 5, Parker Schafer 6 10-12 22, Grant Periat 2 0-0 5, Paul Murray 3 0-0 6, Braden Hall 1 3-4 5. TOTALS 20 17-22 61 CLYDE (8-9) Oscar Webb 3 1-4 8, Aric Kauble 2 4-5 9, Michael Scruggs 5 0-0 11, JeCori Roberts 11 2-2 29, Chase Castle 4 2-2 10, Kaidence Cooksey 1 0-0 2, Karcen Garner 1 0-0 3. TOTALS 27 9-13 72 Huron 13 18 10 20 — 61 Clyde 18 18 20 16 — 72 Three-point goals: Huron 4 (Dike, Raglow, Periat); Clyde 9 (Roberts 5, Webb, Kauble, Scruggs, Garner)