Bowling Green’s Tomas Meek rejects a shot by Rossford’s Carter Matthews late in the second quarter of his team’s win on the road Wednesday. The play led to a game-tying fast break layup. (Nicholas Huenefeld | Sentinel-Tribune)
By Nicholas Huenefeld
Spoecial to the Sentinel-Tribune
ROSSFORD — Ja’ceous Shannon and Antwon Lawrence combined for 44 points, and Tomas Meek did a little bit of everything as the Bowling Green High School boys basketball team picked up a 64-56 win over Rossford inside the George G. Wolfe Fieldhouse Wednesday.
“I knew this was going to be interesting because we only have two guys who have played varsity basketball,” BG head coach Mason Roth said. “We have a lot of young guys with not a lot of experience, and our first game was on the road. We threw a lot of things at our guys, and I think we came out well.
“We played hard. We just kind of had to get our legs under us a little bit. Give Rossford credit. They came out and made some shots early and put a little pressure on us, but we answered throughout the game.”
Shannon opened the game’s scoring with a 3-pointer, although Rossford answered back on back-to-back possessions, which included a strong finish in the post from Jalen Webb and a 3-pointer from Parker Theobalds.
That started a back-and-forth first quarter that featured a trio of lead changes. Down 13-10 late in the frame, Rossford got a floater and a pair of free throws from Theobalds to take a one-point lead into the second.
After Carter Matthews made one of two at the foul line, Theobalds continued to shine, finishing another floater before draining a straightaway 3-pointer to conclude a 10-0 run and give the Bulldogs a 20-13 lead.
A few minutes later, Blake Dewey sank a pair of free throws to give Rossford a 24-17 lead.
“I think overall our guard play early on was good,” Rossford head coach Jonathan Reitz said. “We were able to get Parker some shots clean and not forced. When we were able to play inside-out, we were able to get good, easy looks.”
From there, Meek did a little bit of everything to energize a run for the Bobcats.
The senior forward assisted on a bucket from Shannon, and after Kayden Torres missed the back end of a set of free throws, Meek converted a layup for a three-point possession.
Meek followed with a driving layup and then rejected Matthews on the other end, which started a fast break that resulted in a layup from Shannon to tie it up at 24 apiece.
“We’re expecting a lot from Tomas,” Roth said. “Last year, he was more of a role guy. His soccer skills come into play on the court. He sees things. Sometimes he gets a little crazy with his passes, but we love it because he makes good plays.
“He makes us better. You could see he was pressing a little bit early. Once he kind of relaxed and got going, it settled us down.”
Theobalds ended the run with a mid-range jumper from left of the paint, but Meek’s 3-pointer gave BGHS a 27-26 lead into the break.
Webb continued his strong play for Rossford, scoring down low on a second chance opportunity to open the third quarter, although Shannon scored four points during a 6-0 spurt for Bowling Green.
With his team down 33-28, Webb converted another layup, and Theobalds drained a 3-pointer to tie it up.
“(Webb) did great in his first varsity game,” Reitz said. “He came out and dominated right away. He had some big buckets, some big rebounds. I think he had six or seven rebounds along with his 10 points. He was fantastic. He’s put in a lot of work in the first three weeks to get to this point.”
Meek answered by finding Lawrence for a corner 3-pointer, but Theobalds struck again from long distance. The Bulldogs tacked on a pair of free throws from Dewey and a second chance layup from Wells to create a 40-36 lead.
Lawrence trimmed the deficit to one with another 3-pointer, although Wells followed with a layup, and Rossford had a chance to extend the lead, but back-to-back steals led to layups from Torres.
“We’re obviously a younger team, but I feel like everyone’s wanting to learn, wanting to get better,” Meek said. “I think that’s a great motivator to have, people wanting to develop. I think that’s going to kind of push us through this year.”
Parker Jackson-Grazier added his first varsity point from the free throw line to give the Bobcats a 44-42 lead through three.
After Lawrence and Dewey opened the fourth with buckets for their respective teams, the Bobcats got a 3-pointer from Shannon, a layup from Samuel Wiles and a free throw from Lawrence to open up a 53-44 lead.
Meek’s second 3-pointer pushed the advantage to eight with 4:48 left. A 3-pointer and a layup from Shannon bumped it to 11 – BG’s largest lead – moments later.
“I think (tonight) kind of reflected our scrimmages, especially early on,” Meek said. “The beginning of our scrimmages didn’t work, nothing was working, and then we started clicking towards the end.
“I’m just happy we started clicking towards the end of the second, started gaining momentum and finished it out.”
From there, the game featured a slew of free throws as BG held off Rossford, which didn’t get closer than seven the rest of the way.
Shannon finished with a game-high 24 points for Bowling Green, which included at least four in each quarter and nine in the fourth along with four 3-pointers.
“Ja’s been around the block for us,” Roth said. “He’s been a big part of our varsity program for the last couple of years, so we kind of expect that. His role has changed a lot, and we are excited to see what he can do. He came up with some big baskets for us and made a couple free throws late.”
Lawrence made five from long distance en route to 20 points, and Meek totaled eight points.
“Antoine is a really good shooter,” Roth said. “He shot the ball really well early. I think he kind of kept us in the game, made a couple big shots and relaxed us.”
BG made 11 3-pointers as a team and scored 17 points in each of the final two quarters.
“If we take care of some things like handling the ball and rebounding, things will get better as the season goes on,” Roth said. “We’re young and inexperienced. I’m just happy to get the win and get out of here.”
Rossford was led by Theobalds, who had 21 points, 14 of which came in the first half. Webb added 10 points, including eight in the third quarter, while Jackson Drusback scored all eight of his points in the fourth.
“Overall, I thought we played well,” Reitz said. “Our three bigs played very well together. They had a lot of rebounds, a lot of good points in the paint. I thought when the game got away a little bit, we turned it over a little too much – just bad passes.
“The bigs did a decent job. We just have to take care of the ball a little more. I also think transition defense hurt us. We got tired. Conditioning probably hurt us a little bit when we didn’t get back and guard guys in transition.”
The Bulldogs were held to three field goals in the fourth, and eight of their points in that frame came from the foul line.
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