Maumee Valley back in the hunt

Maumee Valley's Julius Turner, right, takes a shot against Gibsonburg's Gage Beaber on Tuesday. Turner had 18 points, including three 3-pointers in a 75-53 Toledo Area Athletic Conference matchup between the league's top two teams. THE BLADE/JEREMY WADSWORTH Enlarge | Photo Reprints

GIBSONBURG -- Maumee Valley had nearly two months to stew over their only loss of the 2011-12 boys basketball season.

So the Hawks were not about to let a little momentary adversity deny them a chance to get back into the Toledo Area Athletic Conference race Tuesday night at Gibsonburg.

After watching the host Golden Bears rally from an 11-point second-quarter deficit to tie the game at 37 with 3:42 left in the third quarter, Maumee Valley responded with a decisive 15-0 run and pulled away to a 75-53 victory.

"It rolled our way tonight," Hawks coach Jim Robinson said. "At our place [back on Dec. 9], it went their way. We're two good teams, and I respect them and what they do.

PHOTO GALLERY: Maumee Valley vs. Gibsonburg

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"It's not over for either of us. We each have six games left in the league. But if we would have lost tonight, it would've been about over ."

Hawks senior Julius Turner -- plagued by early foul trouble and scoreless in the first half -- came alive to fire in 14 of his 18 points during the crucial third quarter. Maumee Valley moved to 12-1 overall, and tied Gibsonburg for first place in the TAAC at 7-1.

"Coming into the third quarter I just wanted to help my team the best I could," said Turner, who listed the keys to the surge. "Pressure on the ball, hitting big shots, and keeping our composure. Poise was our word for the week, and I think we kept it."

The Hawks were topped by 6-6 senior post player Jared Sturt, who scored 19 points and grabbed 10 rebounds. Fellow seniors Rick Deichert, Jonathan Krueger, and Dixon Stoddard added 14, 10, and nine points, respectively. Maumee Valley posted its 10th straight win since losing to Gibsonburg 46-43 at home back on Dec. 9.

"We picked up the pressure," Sturt said. "We went to our press defense and they just couldn't handle it. We're a pretty athletic team.

"We knew we could do that because we work super hard on our defense every day. That's one of our keys in every single game we play."

At the heart of the game-breaking surge, beyond the pressure defense, was some lights-out shooting by the Hawks. They netted eight straight shots from the field after Gibsonburg knotted the score.

Maumee Valley hit 15 of its 21 second-half shots (71 percent), part of its overall 60 percent effort (28-of-47) from the field in the game. The Hawks also went 11-of-15 (73 percent) from the line, and outrebounded the Golden Bears 30-27.

The Bears (11-2, 7-1) were led by Nate Yarborogh's 15 points, Logan Jones had 13 points and 10 rebounds, and Dylan Dorfmeyer added 11 points in defeat.

After Gibsonburg scored the game's first basket, the Hawks answered with an 8-0 run and ended the first quarter up 17-11. One of Deichert's three 3-pointers in the game gave Maumee Valley a 28-17 lead 3:25 before halftime, but the Bears closed the half with a 9-4 spurt to get within 32-26 at the break.

Gibsonburg extended that momentum after halftime, continuing an overall 20-9 stretch to tie the game 37-37 on Jones' put-back bucket with 3:42 left in the third quarter.

Turner ignited the Hawks' key surge with a 3-pointer 22 seconds after Robinson's timeout, and junior guard Davey Jones scored off a steal for a 42-37 lead at 3:09.

"I called the timeout actually to just try to kill the momentum," Robinson said. "It did, but the biggest play in the game was [Turner's] 3-pointer. We were up 40-37 and then got a turnover and scored. The lead was back to five. The game was fast and we were a little faster tonight, I thought."

Stoddard's three-point play made it 52-37 with 1:02 left in the third, and the Hawks extended their edge to 62-40 early in the fourth.

"When we got it to 37-all, they put their press on us," Bears coach Brent Liskai said. "We worked on it all week, and we just didn't do a good job of handling their pressure. That's to their credit, and that was the turning point in the game.

"We got out of our game a little bit [during Hawks' surge] trying to make a big shot instead of chipping away. We'll learn from this. We need to get back to playing defense the way we play it."

Gibsonburg was 21-of-55 (38 percent) from the field and 3-of-9 at the line.

Contact Steve Junga at: sjunga@theblade.com 419-724-6461, or on Twitter @JungaBlade.