TAYLOR HEATS UP, AND TROJANS FOLLOW SUIT

This past week has been all yin and yang for Ali Taylor. On one hand, Taylor’s shot has felt as good now as it has all season. But the week was filled with heartbreaking losses. Taylor put it all together on Saturday, knocking down six 3-pointers in sparking a late first-half Findlay run as the Trojans edged Defiance 62-58 in a nonconference game for their 10th win of the season, matching last season’s win total. “This has been the hardest week of losing games,” Taylor said of a 54-45 overtime loss to Toledo Whitmer on Monday and a buzzer-beating 38-37 setback to Toledo Central Catholic on Thursday. But Taylor scored 32 points and hit six 3s in the two losses, including 10 points in a big third quarter on Monday. The basket looked even bigger on Saturday. With 4:21 left in the first half, Taylor sank a trey to cut Findlay’s deficit to 27-25. She followed that with another 3-point shot and found a way to one-up herself, not only canning the 3-pointer but absorbing post-shot contact for a foul. Findlay (10-11) took a 31-29 lead with that shot, which capped a 9-2 Taylor run with 2:36 left in the half. FHS fell behind 50 seconds later with Taylor on the bench, buy regained a lead it never relinquished the rest of the way. “I was just trying to look for my shot. When I’m on, the team’s on and I was just trying to be aggressive,” said Taylor, who finished with game highs of 26 points and seven rebounds. “The basket looked really big. I’ve been shooting the ball well lately, so it was just confidence building up. I just trusted my shot.” After hitting four 3s in the first half, including three in a two-minute span of the second quarter that led to a 24-17 Findlay lead, Taylor canned her fifth trey 12 seconds into the third quarter. Forty seconds later she nailed her sixth 3-pointer as the Trojans took a commanding 43-34 lead. “We were really just trying to stay close to her,” Defiance coach Rafael Manriquez said. “She got going and she made some good shots and they did a good job of running her off screens and getting the ball to her when they needed to. “But I thought the two (3s) to start the third quarter were really big. They were contested, but they really weren’t. They were open looks.” The contested looks were not so contested because of the ball movement and offensive rhythm Findlay had. “The big thing is, we scored 62 points, so the thing is execution offensively,” Findlay coach Chris Ireland said. “We were in a flow, we had good rhythm and obviously Ali was making shots, she was feeling it. “We made some plays offensively and just kind of stuck around.” Findlay was forced to “stick around” because the Bulldogs burst out of the gate by shooting lights out. After a scoreless 2:13 to open the game, Laney Baldwin knocked down a baseline jumper. With less than two minutes remaining in the opening quarter Baldwin popped a quick-release 3-pointer to put Defiance ahead 14-7. Then, 22 seconds into the second quarter after Findlay fought to cut its deficit to one, Baldwin answered with another trey. Baldwin finished with a team-high 14 points and four 3s. “We were able to knock down some open looks. We were doing a good job moving the ball and Laney Baldwin hit some big shots for us early on to get us rolling,” Manriquez said. “And it was kind of contagious. A couple girls saw them going in, some other kids were able to make some open shots, too.” But as much uphill battling the Trojans were forced to do in the first half, they were never behind by more than seven points. “They were unbelievable in the first half, but we had a run here and we just kept coming back,” Ireland said. And when the Bulldogs made a late-game run, the Trojans responded with clutch free-throw shooting, a much different scenario than earlier in the week. Emily Heiman, who finished with 20 points, four rebounds and three steals, hit a pair of baskets in the paint and four free throws in the fourth quarter, operating as the primary shot-creator and beneficiary of Defiance’s attempt to face-guard Taylor and eliminate her as a scoring option. Sam Shardo, who finished with six points after pouring in 18 in the loss to Central Catholic, added the game-sealing free throw with 9.7 seconds left as the Trojans survived after Defiance cut deep into a 13-point fourth-quarter lead. “Early on in the year we might’ve folded, but we just kept fighting and that was a big thing for us,” Ireland said. “We grew up and, you know what, we’re making progress.” Findlay hit 19 of 26 free throws on the night, while Defiance was 11 of 22.

TAYLOR HEATS UP, AND TROJANS FOLLOW SUIT

Photo Credit: Findlay High Athletic Department

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