Shelby overwhelms Norwalk in district title game
Mar. 7—ASHLAND — Nothing felt different.
That alone proved to be a big detriment early on for the Norwalk boys basketball team in Saturday's Division II district championship game vs. Shelby.
In a Jan. 30 game at Norwalk, the top-seeded Whippets held Norwalk to 42 points on 17-of-45 (38 percent) shooting in a 59-42 victory.
With a spot in the regional semifinals on the line at Ashland High School, the numbers were virtually the same. Norwalk never got untracked in a 64-44 season-ending loss, this time by shooting 17-of-46 (37 percent).
Norwalk ends its season with a 17-9 record and a second straight district runners-up finish, while the Whippets (20-3) advanced to the Sweet 16 where it will face powerful Lima Shawnee (23-1) at 8 p.m. Thursday at Elida High School.
Both losses to the Whippets felt and played out very much the same.
"We talked about that before the game — we had to knock down shots early to have a chance for the long haul," Norwalk coach Steve Gray said. "We shot it poorly in the first game against them and it was pretty much the same tonight. If you make shots, everything else comes easier, such as defense and handling the ball.
"Tonight, we just weren't good enough to do that."
Unlike the first meeting, when the Truckers were able to stay in range for a bit with a 20-16 first quarter deficit, the rematch saw them fall behind right away.
Cody Lantz scored the game's first five points in a 1:39 span, and after a Garrett Chapin basket by Norwalk, the Whippets went on a 7-0 run in just 39 seconds.
The Truckers struggled to handle the basketball, and Shelby was quick to cash in with baskets from Andre Hill and standout TJ Pugh.
That put Norwalk behind 12-2 with 4:27 left in the first quarter, and the race to stay in the game was on.
Ian Minor made the first of his three 3-pointers to bring Norwalk to within 14-7 at the 2:44 mark of the opening quarter, but just 21 seconds later, Lantz canceled it out with a 3 of his own.
Minor's second 3 made it an 18-10 deficit, and Daniel Traczek closed the quarter with a basket to put the Truckers down 21-12 after one quarter.
Shelby then scored the first two baskets of the second quarter to push the lead to 25-12 with 6:35 left in the first half.
Out of a Norwalk timeout, Minor made his third 3-pointer from the right corner, and it appeared the Truckers had a stop and quickly went up the floor in attempt to get the lead down to single digits.
But Lantz stole the ball and had a clear path to the rim for a slam dunk and two points. That proved to be the final spark needed for the Whippets, as it was the start of an 13-3 scoring run to close out the second quarter for a 38-18 halftime lead.
"We didn't play our best game tonight, but Shelby is very talented," Gray said. "They are very long and athletic. We just didn't play with the confidence we needed to in order to be successful tonight."
With the game out of reach, Norwalk drew as close as 45-29 on a 3-pointer by Will Gehlhausen with 3:14 left in the third. The Whippets then pushed the lead back above 20 points just over a minute later.
"What we wanted to do was get it to the fourth quarter and put some pressure on them and see how they reacted," Gray said of Norwalk's game plan. "But some other kids were able to score for them early on besides Pugh, and that made things difficult."
Minor paced Norwalk with 14 points and five rebounds, while Chapin added seven points and five rebounds. Carson Bauman scored seven points off the bench, and Andrew Mozina scored six points and had three rebounds.
Norwalk loses Chapin, Gehlhausen and Mozina to graduation. They are part of a four-year stretch that has included two SBC Lake Division championships, one district title, and two runners-up finishes.
Saturday's appearance marked three consecutive district title games for Norwalk, a program first.
Gray noted the senior trio were standouts in the classroom and over multiple sports. Chapin and Mozina were also all-league football players, while Gehlhausen was All-Ohio in soccer.
Chapin finished with 1,235 career points (fourth), 879 rebounds (first) and 192 career tournament points (third) across 102 starts and 103 games at Norwalk.
"They've meant so much to this program, just in leading by example and encouraging their teammates," Gray said. "This will be a tough group to see go.
"We have a lot to be proud of, and really, what a great group of kids this was," he added. "The top seven are all National Honor Society students, and I think that's pretty special."
Norwalk also had a rough start to the season. The Truckers were 2-5 after seven games, losing four of the five games by margins of 31, 12, 19 and 17 points.
From that point, Norwalk went 15-4, losing only twice to Shelby and twice by a combined five points to Tiffin Columbian (20-5), which also reached a district title gamed shared the league title with the Truckers.
"This group is special. After the Willard game (on Dec. 19), we had a little soul-searching as a group — and especially those three seniors," Gray said. "They decided they didn't want to be known for that.
"We went 15-4 after that week and won two championships and took home another trophy tonight," he added. "A lot of schools don't get to experience that. It was a good year, but tonight we just got beat by a pretty good team."
NORWALK (17-9)
Kyler Kromer 1-0—3; Andrew Mozina 2-2—6; Will Gehlhausen 1-0—3; Daniel Traczek 1-0—2; Ian Minor 5-1—14; Garrett Chapin 3-1—7; Carson Bauman 3-0—7; Parker Evans 1-0—2. TOTALS 17-4—44.
SHELBY (20-3)
Marshall Shepherd 2-0—4; TJ Pugh 9-0—18; Cody Lantz 7-1—16; Andre Hill 3-0—8; Jeremy Holloway 4-1—10; Issaiah Ramsey 0-1—1; Alex Bruskotter 1-5—7. TOTALS 26-8—64.
Norwalk 12 6 15 11 — 44
Shelby 21 17 18 8 — 64
3-point FGs: (N) Minor 3, Bauman, Kromer, Gehlhausen; (S) Hill 2, Lantz, Holloway
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Norwalk-Shelby tournament history
Shelby and Norwalk have met 130 times in the regular season, mainly twice per year as members of the Northern Ohio League for seven-plus decades. Saturday's game was the eighth tournament matchup between the longtime opponents:
March 7, 1974: Norwalk 65, Shelby 55 (at Ashland)—
March 9, 2000: Norwalk 46, Shelby 44 (at Ashland)—
March 10, 2004: Shelby 73, Norwalk 53 (at Ashland)—
Feb. 28, 2014: Norwalk 54, Shelby 37 (at Bucyrus)^
March 6, 2015: Shelby 49, Norwalk 41 (at Madison)^
Feb. 28, 2017: Norwalk 61, Shelby 53 (at Galion)#
March 4, 2020: Norwalk 62, Shelby 59 (at Madison)—
March 6, 2021: Shelby 64, Norwalk 44 (at Ashland)%
% — denotes district championship
— — denotes district semifinal
^ — denotes sectional championship
# — denotes sectional semifinal
