Jamie Baker posted on February 03, 2012 23:49
By DAVE HANNEMAN
STAFF WRITER
Marc Loving made sure Ed Heintschel’s second trip to Findlay High came off much better than his first.
“The last time I was here was my first year coaching, and we got trounced in a Christmas tournament,” Heintschel said, recalling the outcome but not the score (it was 90-44) of a 1979 matchup with Findlay High’s basketball program.
That was a lot of years and 585 wins ago. And, thanks to Loving, Heintschel and the Toledo St. John’s Titans left town Friday with the series between the two schools now knotted at 1-1.
A talented 6-foot-8 junior who has verbally committed to play college ball for Ohio State, Loving took over Friday’s Three Rivers Athletic Conference matchup, scoring 22 of his game-high 30 points in the second half to rally the Titans to a 49-41 win.
“Yeah, definitely, I wanted the ball in my hands,” Loving said.
“We were down five at the half, so we needed to come out with a lot of energy. We picked it up defensively and that helped our offense.”
Loving also had a game-high 11 rebounds as St. John’s (11-4, 8-2 TRAC) stayed tied with Toledo Whitmer (14-2, 8-2) and Toledo Central Catholic (12-3, 8-2) for the league lead.
St. John’s held 6-11 Findlay center C.J. Gettys to eight points, less than half his 19.3 season average. Boston Ballmer scored 11 points and Michael Clark added nine for the Trojans (9-5, 5-4)
“We came out and just could not get a shot to fall in the first few minutes of the third quarter,” FHS coach Jim Rucki said after the Trojans started the second half 0 for 9 from the field and went 5:20 without a point until Gettys converted an offensive rebound.
“I thought we played much better than last time against them (a 69-59 loss),” Rucki said. “It was more our style of play. But we do not have a very big margin for error. We had a stretch where we had some turnovers and they converted them into a 3-point play and a break-away.
“When you make mistakes against a team like that, they are going to turn them into points. We played hard. We competed for 32 minutes. But those are mistakes we just cannot afford.”
Thanks to tough defense, Findlay weathered the third-quarter scoring drought. Clark scored back-to-back baskets, the second on an offensive rebound, to put the Trojans up 31-28 late in the third quarter. Austin Gutting’s free throw, a put-back by Daniel Peak, Adam Twining’s bank shot off an assist from Clark and Ballmer’s third ‘3’ of the game gave Findlay 32-30, 34-32, 36-35 and 39-38 leads.
“(Findlay) just outhustled us,” Heintschel said. “We’d block shots. The ball would bounce around, they’d pick it up and score. It was a nightmare. We had five rebounds in the first half. Findlay had five offensive rebounds in the second quarter alone.
“What we needed to do was clean things up on both ends of the floor.”
That’s when Loving really took over.
After completing a 3-point play on one end of the floor, Loving rebounded a missed “3” on the other and found Travis Malone with an outlet pass. Malone didn’t get the ball to fall on his drive to the basket but Loving, running the floor, tore down the lane and slammed home the rebound.
“That was a pretty good sequence of events. That worked out pretty well,” Loving said.
“Growing up, they always said to follow up regardless, even on lay-ups, so that time it paid off.”
The junior wing then stole a pass and went in for another slam, boosting St. John’s lead to 45-39. Loving capped his 30-point night by converting 4 of 5 free throws in the final 33 seconds.
“Loving is a player. He’s athletic as heck,” Rucki said. “In the first half I think the guys who guarded him did a good job, but in the second half he got to the basket too many times.
“He made some plays and he finished. I’d like to see us step in and take a couple of charges, which we really haven’t done this year. That’s uncharacteristic of us.
“We had chances. We just couldn’t make the play we needed to make at that time and they did.”
Findlay is right back in league play Tuesday when the Trojans host Lima Senior.
In Friday’s opener, St. John’s junior varsity also used a second-half edge to top Findlay’s reserves, 42-30. Devin Dennard and Braden Miller scored eight points each for Findlay’s JV (7-7, 3-6 TRAC).
TOLEDO ST. JOHN’S (11-4, 8-2)
Carter 0-0 0-0—0, Malone 3-11 1-2—8, Bonds 1-5 1-2—3, Loving 10-16 8-9—30, Good 0-2 0-0—0, Glover 0-1 0-0—0, Stearns 2-4 0-0—6, Wallace 0-0 0-0—0, Thompson 1-1 0-0—2. TOTALS: 17-40 10-13—49.
findlay (9-5, 5-4)
Clark 4-9 0-0—9, Davidson 1-2 1-1—3, Peak 1-2 0-0—2, Ballmer 4-9 0-0—11, Gettys 3-8 2-7—8, Twining 2-8, 1-2—5, Gutting 0-4 3-4—3, Todd 0-0 0-0—0, Dennard 0-0 0-0—0. TOTALS: 15-43 7-14—41.
Toledo St. John’s 9 11 10 19 — 49
Findlay 15 10 7 9 — 41
3-Point GOALS: Toledo St. John’s 5-14 (Malone 1-3, Bonds 0-1, Glover 0-1, Loving 2-5, Stearns 2-4); Findlay 4-15 (Clark 1-6, Ballmer 3-8, Gettys 0-1).
rebounds: Toledo St. John’s 26 (Loving 11); Findlay 34 (Gettys 7, Davidson 6, Twining 5).
turnovers: Toledo St. John’s 10, Findlay 13.
junior varsity: Toledo St. John’s, 42-30.
Hanneman: 419-427-8408,
davehanneman@thecourier.com