Serving Lucas, Ottawa, Sandusky and Wood Counties
Something special is going on with several area boys basketball teams. While The Press will feature an upcoming clash between Lake and Genoa in next week’s edition, this week we take a look at Lionel Armstead’s Clay squad and Tony Egbert’s Gibsonburg crew.
Clay off to best start in over 50 years
The Clay boys basketball team has opened its season with wins in 10 of its first 11 games, which is the best start to a campaign at the school since Charles “Bud” Fehlhaber led the Eagles to an undefeated regular season in 1974-75.
That year’s team featured First Team All-Great Lakes League selections Randy St. John, who led the team in scoring at 16.4 per contest, Rick Wasserman, and Marty Schroeder. Jerry Kettinger was a second team selection, and Joe Romano earned honorable mention recognition.
The Eagles didn’t lose that year until falling in the district semifinals to a Scott High School team led by Truman Claytor, who went on to win a national title at the University of Kentucky before later spending over 30 years as a high school referee locally.
This year’s team is highlighted by the 1-2 scoring punch of Antwoine Mister and Zalieya “Zee” Usrey-Martin. The transfers from Emmanuel Christian, who will now have to sit the rest of the season due to transfer rules, have led the team in scoring through 11 games.
The duo most recently led Clay past Southview, 48-43, on Jan. 13 in the first of two meetings between the two programs this year. They scored a combined 36 points, including 22 from Mister.
Third-year head coach Lionel Armstead knows his team will have to find scoring elsewhere going forward.
“They brought a lot of scoring, really both of them lead us in scoring, so just (having that) next man up mentality as far as moving the ball to share the ball (will be important),” he said.
Clay’s only loss was a one-point heartbreaker to St. John’s on Dec. 8. Since then, they’ve reeled off seven consecutive wins. Most recently, they earned the win over Southview at home, which was one of the team’s goals entering the season after finishing second behind the Cougars in the division the past two years. They will meet again in Sylvania on Feb. 17.
“It’s huge for us, but we still got work to do,” Armstead said. “We have to make some adjustments and be ready for round two.”
Despite the absence of Mister and Usrey-Martin the rest of the way, Clay still features a dangerous roster that includes a pair of seniors, Grant Oberdick and Carson Vincent, and a group of 10 juniors, including Aiden Berryman, who is in his third year as the team’s starting point guard.
“They work extremely hard, and they trust each other,” Armstead said. “I don't think I've ever coached a team that had the chemistry that this team has. They come every day. I don't have to worry about any arguing, the locker room ... they truly are a family.”
While next year’s team could be even more dangerous with the return of Mister, Usrey-Martin and the rest of this year’s junior class, while losing just two seniors, this year’s team has already made history.
“(The 10-1 start) means a lot because it just means that they're buying into the process,” Armstead said. “They trust the coaching staff, they trust each other, and they get a chance to kind of experience what that looks like.”
Gibsonburg’s start best since 2014-15
The Golden Bears, meanwhile, have achieved the program’s best start since Brent Liskai led Gibsonburg to a 22-0 regular season in 2014-15.
“I’m thrilled for the kids. They've earned this,” head coach Tony Egbert said. “They work hard in the offseason getting shots up. We have athletes in other sports. They work hard doing weight room stuff and training for other sports, which really translates to a lot of stuff we like to do in basketball.
“We like to get out and transition and run the floor. We've done a good job with that. We’ve found ways to win games by a lot of possessions, and the last week or two here, we found ways to win a couple games that were kind of grind it out (with a) low number of possessions. I'm just proud of the way they've found different ways to win. That's what I'm probably most pleased with so far.”
After losing two of the season’s first three games, Gibsonburg has reeled off nine consecutive wins. The most recent victory came against Tiffin Calvert, 65-62, who along with Old Fort, have ran the Sandusky Bay Conference in recent years. In that game, the Golden Bears saw a double-digit lead disappear before pulling it out late.
“We knew they were going to have a run in them, and our experience there was huge toward the end,” Egbert said. “There was a stretch where guys kind of hid from the ball, but we fixed it pretty quick. Reece (Walby) knocked down a couple big free throws at the end. Aiden Morant made a big play to get his teammate Hunter Wasserman a layup, which was huge. Those little things were huge.”
Walby (16.5 PPG), Morant (13.8 PPG), and Wasserman (11.4 PPG) are the team’s top three scorers. Xander Zimmerman is fourth in scoring at 8.9 per contest, while Wasserman’s 9.8 rebounds per contest leads the team. Walby leads the way in both assists and steals at 3.5 and three per game, respectively.
Others like Luke Foster, Kayden Havens, Chuy Rodriguez, and Aiden Senters average over 10 minutes per game, with Grant Smith not far behind at 8.4 per contest.
“There’s been a lot of games where we have different kids step up, whether it's offensively or defensively,” Egbert said. “We can go nine deep. Aiden hit a big shot at Lakota at the buzzer in the third quarter to get us going. Grant at Oak Harbor came off the bench for us. He doesn't score a lot, but he did a good job. Oak Harbor’s got a really good player, the Hallet kid. Grant kind of frustrated him and wore him down for a while. Chuy diving on loose balls and stuff, Luke doing the same thing.
“We've got a bunch of different kids that are contributing to this. It's not just one or two guys putting up big numbers every night. It's been every single kid that hits the floor doing something to contribute to winning. It’s really rewarding as a coach to see. It makes it fun because you never know whose night it's going to be. That’s what’s been exciting so far.”
Egbert said his team is focused on having a say in the league title race the rest of the season, whether that’s competing to win the title or ruining dreams for other schools.
It’s a nice goal to expect considering where the program was just three years ago when Egbert took over. In his first season, Gibsonburg won three games. Then, they achieved 12 the following year and 15 more last year.
Egbert is proud of this group, especially considering all that.
“The senior group, when they were freshmen, we went 3-20,” he said. “Practices can be tough during a three-win season, but this group of five seniors that we have, they've seen the lows, and they know what it's taken to kind of get to where we're at now. That's the cool thing. People always preach buying into the process and trusting the process, taking stuff day by day. To see it actually pay off for these kids is really cool to see.”
