North Ridgeville Edges Westlake, 54-50

Danny Montgomery scored 12 of his game-high 31 points in the first quarter and made two key free throws late in the game to give North Ridgeville a hard-fought 54-50 non-conference win over Westlake on Tuesday night.

Westlake (4-6) trailed by 12 points before staging a late run to close the deficit to two late in the fourth quarter. But they would not get any closer. Montgomery, at the foul line, made both free throws with 8.7 seconds left to seal the win for the Rangers (6-5).

The Demons committed 14 turnovers in the first half and were down 28-20 at the break.

"It's been an issue all year, they played man to man defense and chucked the ball all over the place in the first half,"  said Westlake coach Bob Patton. "We wanted to pressure a little bit and thought we could do that, but it's very difficult to do that when you turn the ball over like that. As a result, with some of our turnovers we got Montgomery going.  He got some run outs and easy baskets on the court, got going and he is really good."
 
Westlake trailed after the first quarter, 16-10, due to Montgomery's 12-point first-quarter outburst. The Rangers extended their lead to 12 points midway through the second quarter before the Demons cut the deficit down to eight, trailing at halftime 28-20.

"We didn't get off to the start we wanted to," said senior . "The first half wasn't how we wanted to come out, second half we played a lot harder and if some shots went down it could of been a whole new ball game.
 
LaBroo paced Westlake with 16 points, Grant Gase added 10 and Shawn Turk got 8 in a losing effort. Freshmen center Gavin Skelly led the team with four  rebounds and played well during crunch time, despite missing a layup that would have brought the Demons to within two late in fourth quarter.

"Gavin did a nice job tonight.  I was happy for him. I felt bad that he missed the layup, but a nice job for the most part," Patton said.

Montgomery was the star tonight, leading the Rangers with 31 points. “I got hot early and just let the game come to me. My teammates do a good job of getting me the ball and I want the ball at the end of the game,” he said.
 
The Demons next play home against Midpark on Friday night.