The Wadsworth High School varsity boys basketball team defeated the Wooster Generals 66-56 in the season opener on Friday night. The team has a new coach this year, Dennis Schrock, and is fairly young as they graduated five varsity seniors from last season. Although they are young, nothing stopped them from putting on the pressure and defeating Wooster in a non-league match-up.
The game started with a lot of back-and-forth play between the two teams. Maxx Bosley, Senior captain for the Grizzlies, started the game off strong with 6 quick points in the first quarter. Around the two-minute mark of the first quarter, the Generals started to pull ahead with a 12-18 lead and the tempo began to change.
“Basketball is a game of runs,” Bosley said. “They went on their run and it was our turn to make our run. I tried to settle down with my teammates because I know that we have a lot of new players.”
The Grizzlies did just that, starting the quarter with a 5-0 run making the score 17-18. The last minutes of the half consisted of persistent back-and-forth play as the Grizzlies and Generals were tied at 20-20 and at half were tied 30-30.
The tempo shifted for the Grizzlies as they entered the third quarter. Gavin Madigan, sophomore, and Bosley made back-to-back threes giving the Grizzlies some cushion as they went ahead 46-39.
Approaching the end of the third quarter, Bosley got his third foul and had to sit to make sure that he would be able to play in the fourth quarter. The Grizzlies continued to fight and pushed their lead to 51-42 to end the quarter.
Although the Grizzlies had led for most of the second half, the Generals cut the lead to within 4 points with three minutes left to go in the game. Finn Schmitt, senior center, had several big-time blocks that helped the Grizzlies gain momentum and finish out the quarter.
“It was a close game and we needed stops,” Schmitt said. “I broke my nose at the beginning of the game so I was determined to get the win. My adrenaline went through the roof when I got that last block and we got the board and took it down to score.”
Schmitt sealed the Grizzlies’ win by hitting both his free throws with only seconds left to go in the game. Bosley scored a game-high of 32 points and Schmitt was the second-leading scorer for the Grizzlies with 12 points. The Grizzlies will travel to Brunswick (1-0) on Tuesday, Dec 5 in another non-league matchup.
