Smithville gets much-needed win over Rittman

SMITHVILLE — Smithville needed something positive.

The Smithies had dropped three games in a row by single digits heading into Friday's matchup with Rittman, with perhaps its most challenging stretch of schedule of the season — games against Tri-Village, Hillsdale and Norwayne in the span of seven days — on the horizon.

Smithville got what it needed, beating Rittman 50-31 to move into the second half of the Wayne County Athletic League schedule with some much-needed momentum.

"I think what can happen as a result of some of those games is you can think everything was bad in those games," Smithville coach Corey Kaufman said of the recent losing streak. "You have to have a standard that losing isn't acceptable, but you still have to not come off the rails as a result of some pretty unfortunate losses."

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After overtime losses to Hillsdale and Dalton last week, the Smithies (5-8, 3-4 WCAL) made sure it didn't come down to the wire against Rittman (5-7, 2-5), rebounding from a tough first start — Rittman led 8-3 after the first quarter — to open up a massive 36-5 run that spanned 15-plus minutes of game time. Rittman never seriously challenged the Smithies in the second half after leading and playing them close for much of the first.

"We had some open shots there in the first quarter that just didn't go down," Kaufman said of the slow start. "There's not a lot to do there as a coach. I thought we had good looks on some inside-out 3s and it was just a matter of could our defense hold long enough for our offense to catch up."

Along with an all-around defensive effort, Smithville got contributions from different places, with four players scoring eight points or more. Evan Steiner led the way with 12 points and helped ignite Smithville's offense in the first half when it was struggling.

Dawson Young also had nine points but made also set up teammates and made other types of winning plays that make him one of the most valuable players on the floor in every Smithville game.

"There were so many things we didn't know about coming into this year, so many changing parts," Kaufman said. "But we thought Dawson would be there on a consistent basis. We told him after (last week's loss to) Mogadore, we expect a lot out of him, and I think he'll be good for us going forward."

The 19-point loss stung for Rittman, which came into Friday playing some of its best basketball of the year.

"There's two areas we want to see improvement," Rittman coach Tom Staley said. "It's not only physical toughness but mental toughness. Rittman teams in the past would fold when things didn't go their way. And up until tonight, I think that was the exact opposite. We were extremely physically and mentally tough up until tonight. I don't know if it was not having school today and sitting around and doing nothing, but we didn't come out with the same fire and toughness that we have in the past five or six games that made us start turning some heads in the county and elsewhere."

Still, after a few tough seasons, Rittman is on the right track, winning three of its last six with 6-foot-6 Noah Wile and versatile guard Dack Mutters presenting matchup problems for a lot of opponents.

"When we're bought in on the defensive side, we're suffocating," Staley said. "We'll just go through these lulls where we play good defense for nine or 10 seconds and that one second when we don't lock in gets us. But a big positive is that our kids just don't quit."

Player of the Game: Quinn Maibach, Smithville

Facing off against Wile, Maibach didn't back down. On multiple occasions, Maibach went right at Wile despite giving up some size, scoring 10 points for the Smithies. Wile had his moments as well, scoring nine points and grabbing 10 rebounds.

Top Performers

Smithville: Evan Steiner 12, Quinn Maibach 10, Dawson Young 9, Ethan Piatt 8

Rittman: Noah Wile 9, Dack Mutters 9 ... Wile 10 rebounds

This article originally appeared on The Daily Record: Boys Hoops: Smithville back on winning track against Rittman