Scott still unbeaten as Wyse's 21 points top Findlay

Findlay s Jesse Wohl tries to pass out of the trap by Scott s Irmon Young (14) and Hakeem Greer last night in a battle of unbeaten teams. Scott remained so with a 67-54 victory at home.

Scott's Chris Wyse makes good use of a Kenny Hairston alley-oop pass in the second quarter against Findlay last night at Scott.

Scott coach Joe Suboticki finally observed last night what he hadn't seen recently out of the Bulldogs.

Scott looked the part of a team with an undefeated record as it delivered Findlay its first loss of the season by posting a 67-54 victory at Scott High.

Chris Wyse led the way to the decisive win by scoring a game-high 21 points, including a crowd-pleasing two-hand dunk off an assist thrown off the backboard by Kenny Hairston early in the second quarter. The poster shot not only brought the crowd to its feet, it provided a boost in momentum for the Bulldogs (11-0).

"After the dunk that motivated us," Wyse said. "That was an unselfish play [by Hairston] and we needed that kind of play because we haven't been playing well.

"We do that [alley-oop play] a lot in practice when we're having fun."

Suboticki admits he wasn't ecstatic about the alley-oop pass off the glass from Hairston to Wyse, but he welcomed seeing an all-around good game by the Bulldogs.

"I was really pleased with how we played tonight," Suboticki said. "We hadn't really played well in two weeks, so I was very pleased with their effort. Everyone played good defense. Everyone played up on their feet tonight."

Hairston added 14 points and Irmon Young came through with 13 to help the Bulldogs' cause.

But the Trojans didn't go away quietly.

Findlay s Jesse Wohl tries to pass out of the trap by Scott s Irmon Young (14) and Hakeem Greer last night in a battle of unbeaten teams. Scott remained so with a 67-54 victory at home.

Luke Kraus and Jesse Wohl scored 17 and 16 points, respectively, to lead Findlay back to within two points of tying the Bulldogs late in the game.

The Trojans had fallen behind the Bulldogs by as many as 18 points in the second half.

Findlay's Mac Cloud knocked down a wide-open 3-pointer from the baseline to make it 54-52 with 3:08 left in the game.

However, both teams went scoreless for more than a minute before Scott put the game away by scoring its next 10 points from the foul line.

Cloud put the Bulldogs in position to secure the win after getting called for a technical after making a comment to an official on his way to Findlay's bench after picking up his fifth foul with 2:01 remaining.

Milo Warren made a pair of technical foul shots before Wyse stepped to the line to shoot a pair of free throws to give Scott a 58-52 edge.

"It killed us and that's the game right there," Findlay coach Jim Rucki said of Cloud's technical. "[But] he deserved it."

Scott, which played in a game the day before in the MLK Classic, may have showed signs of fatigue as the game progressed. Wyse suffered from leg cramps late in the game and had to sit out a few minutes of the fourth quarter before returning to action. The Bulldogs also gave up their share of open looks to the Trojans during the second half after playing solid defensively in the first half.

"I think we shoot the ball well and I knew we'd finally start to put a couple of those shots in," Rucki said of the Trojans, who registered all five of their 3-pointers for the game in the second half.

"But we didn't react well to their pressure [in the first half] and I thought we would have handled that better."

Suboticki credited Findlay for making it close in the end.

"They just made some shots down the stretch and we had some trouble with their 1-3-1 [defense]," he said.

The Bulldogs owned a 13-10 lead after one quarter and would build upon their early advantage in the second quarter.

Contact Donald Emmons at:

demmons@theblade.com

or 419-724-6302.