By RUSTY MILLER

AP Sports Writer

 

It’s not just the players who put up big numbers.

Toledo St. John’s Jesuit head coach Ed Heintschel collected his 600th career boys basketball victory last Friday night when his Titans defeated Toledo Central Catholic, 68-56, in a battle of state-ranked teams.

Heintschel (600-189), in his 34th season at St. John’s, became the 10th Ohio boys coach to reach that milestone. He is the first boys coach in the state to win 600 games exclusively at a big school (Class AAA or Division I) in Ohio.

He is one of four active coaches with 600 or more victories, along with all-time leader Richard Kortokrax (844-337), currently at Kalida; Joe Petrocelli (820-299), who is in his 48th season at Kettering Alter; and Norm Persin (632-168), who is currently at Oak Hill (totals through Jan. 15).

Heinstchel also is the fourth Ohio boys coach to earn 600 or more wins all at one school.

LISATH STEPPING DOWN: Piketon boys coach Jeff Lisath has announced his retirement at the end of the season.

The Redstreaks are 12-3 and leading the Scioto Valley Conference. Lisath, who also coached the Chillicothe Unioto boys and Chillicothe girls, has more than 250 wins as a coach and led Piketon to the state final four in 2009.

Lisath won a state title during his high school days at Portsmouth and went on to play at Miami University. He has won three league titles, six sectional titles, one district title, one district runner up and one regional title.

NOTE THIS: Norwalk won its 35th straight regular season game by holding Toledo Rogers 32 points under its season average in a 70-55 victory; Huron snapped Sandusky Perkins’ 23-game Sandusky Bay Conference winning streak with a 72-60 win; Oak Harbor’s 63-30 win over Milan Edison improved the Rockets to 6-2 in the Sandusky Bay Conference — after the Rockets had just six SBC wins in the previous five seasons combined; Defiance hit 11 of 19 3-pointers to take a 54-5 halftime lead over Sherwood Fairview en route to a 76-28 victory, tying a school record with 14 triples; the Hamler Patrick Henry girls had more turnovers (28) than shot attempts (27) in losing for the first time this season, falling to Archbold 54-40 in a battle of state-ranked teams; and Hardin Northern’s boys ended a 35-game Blanchard Valley Conference losing streak with a 66-59 win over Arcadia — their first since a 67-65 win, also over Arcadia, back on Feb. 6, 2009.

RECORD EFFORTS: Point guard Emma Hostetler became the girls all-time leading scorer at Shelby, topping the mark of 1,313 once held by former Division II player of the year Angie Sherk, who set it in 1998; and Mansfield St. Peter’s Randa Payne broke her single-game scoring record for the third time in the storied history of the program, hitting seven 3-pointers en route to 48 points against Plymouth.

TURNABOUT: Ottoville’s boys blanked state-ranked Liberty-Benton 10-0 in the first quarter of Saturday’s game. But the Eagles limited the Big Green to a single point over the next two periods and rallied to chalk up a 32-19 win.

PICKING ON THE TORNADOES: Belllevue’s Jalen Santoro hit the game-winning shot with 2 seconds left in the Redmen’s 64-62 double-overtime win vs. Tiffin Columbian. He finished the game with 34 points. A week earlier, Santoro’s younger sister Carly scored 43 points vs. Columbian.

Carly, by the way, had 54 points in four quarters over two consecutive games — the first three quarters against Columbian’s Tornadoes and 11 points in the first quarter against Upper Sandusky.

LATE ARRIVALS: Wauseon’s Collin Bzovi scored 16 of his 25 points in the fourth quarter helping the Indians rally from a 34-32 deficit and beat Delta, 51-43; Findlay trailed Lima Senior 18-4 in the first quarter of their game Friday, but rallied to win it 51-50 on Michael Clark’s 3-pointer with three seconds left; Leipsic’s Devin Mangas hit a 3-pointer, but it was disallowed because it came just after the buzzer in a 60-57 loss to McComb.

Vanlue’s Linden Smith hit a potential game-winning 3 at the end of the first overtime, but a timeout had been called and the basket was waved off, eventually resulting in a 63-62 loss in double overtime to No. 7 Old Fort; Wade Gelhaus scored the last nine Fort Recovery points, including a buzzer-beating 15-footer, to give the Indians a 61-60 overtime win over Versailles; and Ottoville’s girls scored the final 11 points as the top-ranked Big Green rallied to beat Minster 45-43. Bowling Green-bound Abby Siefker hit the game-winner with less than 10 seconds left to move Ottoville to 15-0.

FLIER FLYING HIGH: Clyde’s Amanda Cahill, an Indiana University recruit, was fouled with 7.4 seconds left and made both free throws in a 30-29 win over Cincinnati Winton Woods at the Classic at the Country at Berlin Hiland Sunday.

Clyde is 61-1 in the regular season since 2010-11, with the lone loss coming against four-time defending Division II state champion Shaker Heights Hathaway Brown at last season’s Classic in the Country. The win was only the second of unbeaten Clyde’s 17 wins to be closer than 15 points.