ARCHBOLD WEATHER

North Central No Match For Blackbirds





Logan Rufenacht flies to the basket in Pettisville’s BBC contest with the North Central Eagles. He was one of six Blackbirds to score in double figures in the 90-27 win.– photo by Mario Gomez

Logan Rufenacht flies to the basket in Pettisville’s BBC contest with the North Central Eagles. He was one of six Blackbirds to score in double figures in the 90-27 win.– photo by Mario Gomez

Pettisville welcomed North Central to the Bird Cage, Tuesday, Dec. 18, for a Buckeye Border Conference matchup.

The Birds jumped out to an early lead and kept scoring to win 90-27.

Pettisville (5-1, 3-1 BBC) buried 12 treys, but it was a smothering defense that propelled the Birds to their biggest win of the season.

“I think it started on the defensive end,” said Brian Leppelmeier, PHS head coach.

“Executing the defensive game plan of keeping them in front and contesting shots really sparked us early on.”

The Blackbirds scored the first 12 points before the Eagles (3-4, 2-3 BBC) scored on a free throw with 3:48 left in the quarter.

The Eagles scored their first field goal of the night at the 2:22 mark, but Canidate Vickery drained a three and Graeme Jacoby powered home a layup for a 23-3 lead at the end of one.

Pettisville scored 23 points in the second with a steady dose of inside and long-range shooting for a 46-11 advantage at the half.

Jacoby and Sam Rychener dominated the lane in the third, scoring 10 of the Blackbirds’ 26 points to push the difference to 72-18.

The final stanza opened with a Rychener slam dunk that brought the crowd to its feet.

The starters watched the remaining seven minutes from the bench as the reserves enjoyed extended playing time, outscoring the Eagles 18-9 to seal the 90-27 victory.

“You can look at the offensive end, and we did hit shots,” said Leppelmeier. “I thought those shots were in rhythm and those shots were in the framework for our offense.

“We were fortunate that we were hitting shots early, and we just continued to play smart basketball.”

All 11 Birds scored, with six in double figures.

Jacoby and Rychener led all scorers with 14 points each. Vickery and Detric Yoder each added 12. Mitchell Avina and Logan Rufenacht scored 11 and 10, respectively.

Alex Lehsten scored seven points to lead NC.

BOX SCORE
PETTISVILLE (90) – Avina 11,
Rufenacht 10, Yoder 12, Leppelmeier
3, J. Horning 5, A. Horning 3, Vickery
12, Grieser 4, Reynolds 2, Rychener
14, Jacoby 14. Totals 34-10-90.
NORTH CENTRAL (27) – Patten
1, Williams 4, Hayes 6, Miller 2,
Cummins 2, Cogswell 2, Lehsten 7,
McEwen 3. Totals 9-8-27.
PHS 23 23 26 18 – 90
NCHS 3879-27
Reserve score: Pettisville won 55-24.


Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *