For the past decade, the Norwood boys basketball team has known that any hopes of winning a Summit Conference title would likely come from picking up a victory over rival Hartville.
In many of those games over the past 10 years, the Pirates found themselves on the other end of double-digit losses to the Eagles.
That all changed last Tuesday night when the Pirates traveled to the Eagles’ gym and left Hartville with a double-digit win of their own. After being up by 20 points at one time, the Pirates held off a late Hartville charge to win the game, 65-55, putting them in good position to make a run at the Summit Conference crown this season.
It was tight game early at 10-9 when the Pirates made a 6-0 run. That run would be extended to 16-2 with the help of Garrett Davault’s 16 points in the first quarter, giving the Pirates a 24-11 edge. Norwood made 10-of-14 shots from the field in the fourth.
Hartville’s Grant Culver made two 3-pointers in the first quarter for the Eagles.
After pushing the run to 18-2 early in the second quarter, both teams combined to make just 4-of-23 shots from the field.
Down 29-17 at halftime, Hartville’s Eric Wilson opened the third quarter with a big 3-pointer to get Norwood’s lead back into single digits.
Davault would go on to score 10 points in the third while Wilson led Hartville with six points in a 45-28 game.
Noah Drake pushed Norwood’s lead to 20 with a 3-pointer to open the fourth quarter.
Hartville then showed a lot of heart methodically cutting into Norwood’s lead in the final minutes. Logan Simpson had a couple of big steals and buckets before Brody McNeil and Wilson made back-to-back 3-pointers in an 8-2 run.
The Eagles cut the lead to 55-47 with 1:17 left in the game, causing their fans to get back into the game.
Unfortunately, Davault made six free throws down the stretch. The Pirates made 13-of-19 free throws in the quarter to seal the 10-point win.
Davault paced the Pirates with 33 points, 11 rebounds, four assists and two steals. Jacob Sinning added 12 points, four rebounds and two blocked shots; Gavin McGraw had eight points, two rebounds and one assist; Peyton McDaris added five points, eight rebounds and one assist; Drake had three points and one rebound; Justin Chadwell had three points and two rebounds; and Max McGowan added one point, three rebounds and three assists.
Wilson led the Eagles with 17 points while Jacob Ballard paced the Eagles with 14 points, six rebounds, one assist and one steal.
Simpson had 12 points, seven assists, six rebounds and four steals; Culver had six points and five rebounds; McNeil added four points, five rebounds, three assists and one steal; and Jackson Ward had two points and one rebound.
