Danbury runs past SMCC for fifth straight win

SANDUSKY — Danbury's girls basketball program is used to winning. It showed after the Lakers faced an early deficit Thursday at St. Mary Central Catholic. The Lakers calmly erased a five-point SMCC lead, going on a 19-2 run that covered half of the first quarter and half of the second. From there, Danbury rode its defense and Lauren Bergman to a 50-39 Sandusky Bay Conference River Division win. The Lakers, who are closing in on their fifth straight winning season, won their fifth straight game to improve to 10-8 overall and 7-4 in the River. Reid Didion hit a 3-pointer to give the Panthers a 12-7 lead with 4:26 to play in the opening period before the momentum quickly changed. "We had to take a timeout to steady the ship," Danbury coach Joe Miller said. "They've (SMCC) improved so much from last year to this year and the beginning of this year to now. They're gonna have double-digit wins this season, which is outstanding." Danbury picked apart SMCC's zone defenses and led 18-14 after one quarter when Bergman drove to her left and scored with a few seconds to play in the opening period. A 3-pointer by Bergman gave Danbury a 26-14 lead midway through the second quarter, finishing off a 13-0 run. "We kept trying to pass fake, dribble pass, ball reversal, all that stuff," Bergman said. "That's what beats a zone. We've finally found our rhythm and whatever we're do is working." Bergman, a versatile 5-foot-5 junior, had 17 points by halftime and finished with 22 points and 11 rebounds. She missed the first four games of the season with a lingering volleyball injury, then was on a minutes restriction for a few more. "Everybody forgets she didn't play the first four games," Miller said. "We're 10-8 and we didn't have her for the first four and the next four she wasn't ready to play because she hadn't been able to play for months. "She has definitely turned it on and her teammates do a great job setting her up, specifically Grace (McDonald), Zoe (Uhinck) and Charley (Lenthe). She feeds off of their energy and great passing. Everyone shares the ball." McDonald added nine points, eight rebounds and stable ball-handling for the guard-heavy Lakers, who got some early easy buckets while winning their 12th straight against SMCC. "The execution against their zone was outstanding and that forced them to play man," Miller said. "I feel like if teams have to play us man, we have a way of figuring that out. The high-low action was really good." Bergman scored right before the halftime buzzer to give Danbury a 33-22 lead at intermission. The closest SMCC could get in the second half was 10 points at 37-27 when Didion hit a 3 with 2:52 to play in the game. Didion is one of three freshman starters for the Panthers, who appear to have turned the corner after four dismal seasons. SMCC coach Kevin Youskievicz is in his second season rebuilding the Panthers. "When we took over this program, we kept it on life support every day," he said. "We knew we had to get to this year because we knew there would be a change. We would have a year under their belts, and with the addition of the freshmen, they would start contributing, which they have. "We have two senior leaders (Allison Lill and Nicolette Hile) who are helping the freshmen to develop. They're a good combination." SMCC dropped to 9-9 overall and 5-6 in the River. One more victory would give the Panthers their first double-digit win season since 2019-20. Freshman center Evelyn Shafrath finished with 14 points and 17 rebounds. "She loves playing defense, she loves getting rebounds," Youskievicz said. "She works hard at her game. She will not be denied." Freshman guard Rae Roth added seven points and some sticky defense. The Panthers, though, couldn't shoot their way into a lead, connecting on just 25 percent of their shots from the field. "We find ourselves in situations that when we don't make shots we start pressing to make our shots and it makes it even worse," Youskievicz said. "I looked at our shot chart and I have no complaints about our shots went, but nothing fell when we needed them to fall." Both programs have thin benches. The junior varsity game lasted only two quarters because of a lack of bodies. But SMCC has only three seniors and Danbury has two, so there's a solid foundation for both teams. "We don't have a lot of kids, but they work really hard," Miller said. "I give them a lot of credit; not many kids want to get up at 6 in the morning twice a week to work out, lift weights and condition. I'm really proud of all of them." DANBURY (10-8, 7-4) Lauren Bergman 9 2-9 22, Eva Halblaub 0 1-4 1, Grace McDonald 4 1-5 9, Charley Lenthe 4 0-2 8, Zoe Uhinck 2 1-1 5, Jordan Ritz 1 0-0 3, Leighanna Bartzen 1 0-0 2. TOTALS 21 5-21 50 SMCC (9-9, 5-6) Nicolette Hile 0 0-0 0, Allison Lill 1 0-0 2, Rae Roth 3 0-0 7, Reid Didion 5 3-6 15, Evelyn Shafrath 5 4-6 14, Lauren Maxwell 0 1-4 1. TOTALS 14 8-15 39 Danbury 18 15 8 9 — 50 SMCC 14 8 6 11 — 39 Three-point goals: Danbury 3 (Bergman 2, Ritz); SMCC 3 (Didion 2, Roth)