The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Bay makes move with its board game
Bay coach Jared Shetzer emphasized rebounding after the Rockets lost to Elyria Catholic this past Friday.
His team responded Dec. 17 at Elyria in a 69-65 win.
The Rockets pulled down a key rebound down the stretch.
Up, 67-65, with over five seconds left, Bay missed a free throw but Jake Martin pulled down a rebound with 3.7 seconds remaining, giving it to Christian Dupps, who calmly nailed a pair of free throws to ice the game.
Bay (5-2) outrebounded Elyria (3-3), 30-23, led by Max Showalter’s seven boards.
Dupps led in scoring with 19 points.
“I had a speed mismatch on some of the other guys,” Dupps said.
“We talked a lot in practice about taking accountability in boxing out your man and crash the glass. We can take away a lot of confidence in this game because we were coming off that loss against Elyria Catholic.”
After Bay went up, 5042, early in the fourth, the Pioneers went on an 11-0 run, led by their defense creating fast-break opportunities.
The Rockets called a timeout and regained their poise, getting three key baskets from Cooper Lyons to go up, 66-61, with 1:12 remaining.
After Elyria cut it to three, the Pioneers had possession with a chance to tie, but traveled with 37.5 seconds left.
From there, it became a free-throw game, and Bay made just enough. The Pioneers were led by MarSaun Robinson’s 21 points and Caleb Rogers’ 15.
“We made too many mistakes to beat a good team,” Elyria coach Brett Larrick said. “We rebounded the ball and got out in space during the 11-0 run, but we didn’t do it enough.”
The Rockets shot 15 of 22 from the free-throw line and Elyria went 8 of 10, a problem Larrick added the Pioneers didn’t do enough getting to the line.
Bay led at halftime, 3229, and 48-42 at the end of the third. Erik Painter added 14 points.
“We rebounded the ball so bad on Friday, and it’s been the talk between the text-message group and the coaches,” Shetzer said. “That’s all we’ve talked about. I give our guys a lot of credit tonight for hitting the boards. Jake Martin is a smart player that grabbed that board and sealed it for us. He’s an underclassmen that hasn’t played that much.
“Dupps played some point guard for us tonight, and we had three guys play the 5 position in the game at the same time because of foul trouble. Hats off to all those guys.”