Coldwater comes up short by one point at New Knoxville

NEW KNOXVILLE - The Coldwater Cavaliers went on the road and played the state-ranked New Knoxville Rangers down the wire before coming up short, 42-41, in a Midwest Athletic Conference defensive struggle Friday night at New Knoxville High School.

With the win, New Knoxville (ranked number-two in Division IV) remains undefeated and all alone atop the conference standings at 4-0 and ups its overall mark to 11-0. Coldwater falls to 1-3 in the league and 5-6 on the season.

"I'm very proud of my kids, even though of course the outcome wasn't what we wanted," said Coldwater coach Mike Kanney. "We played a very good basketball team on their home court down the wire and our kids showed a lot of heart."

Coldwater rallied from an eight-point deficit in the fourth period and had several chances to take control of the game only to see it slip away. Leading by just two, 32-30, 38 seconds into the final period New Knoxville scored 10 of the game's next 12 points to take a 42-32 lead on a Ross Stienecker lay-in with 3:45 left. Stienecker and Josh Niemeyer each had four points to lead the charge.

Ryan Geier stopped the bleeding for Coldwater as he scored a lay-in to make the score 42-34. After a Coldwater timeout and a New Knoxville turnover, Eric Lefeld scored his only basket of the game to get his team to within six, at 42-36, with 3:08 left.

After another Ranger miscue, Coldwater had a chance to cut into the deficit even more but Lefeld missed a bunny inside. After yet another New Knoxville turnover, Coldwater cut the lead in half as Geier scored a conventional three-point play inside to make the score 42-39 with 2:09 remaining on the clock.

Again Coldwater had a chance to cut into the New Knoxville lead as the home team turned the ball over but they came up empty as Cory Klenke missed two free throws with 1:08 left. After a Stienecker miss with 58 seconds remaining, Geier scored inside to make the score 42-41 with 37 seconds left on the clock.

On its ensuing trip, New Knoxville worked the clock down to 17 seconds only again to turn the ball over as a pass out front to point guard Tony Meyer was fumbled away and it was recovered by the Cavaliers' Seth Kahle.

On the ensuing Coldwater possession, Kahle missed from the wing and Geier missed on the stickback but Geier's miss was rebounded by Kurt Riethman with nine seconds left.

After a Coldwater timeout, the Cavaliers had two more chances but came up empty as Kahle missed a shot and Lefeld missed the rebound attempt with New Knoxville freshman Austin Arnett grabbing the defensive rebound with four seconds left and getting fouled.

Arnett missed the front end of the one-and-one opportunity with Geier grabbing the rebound but the Cavaliers could not get a shot off as the final seconds ticked away.

"We missed a couple shots but we had a couple of chances down the stretch to win a game on the road and that is all you can want," said Kanney. "I thought in the second half we were more patient offensively and we had more touches and we hit the open man and took advantage of more opportunities."

Geier led the way for Coldwater with a game-high 17 points and he also grabbed a team-high eight rebounds. Klenke added 14 points and chipped in seven rebounds.

Stienecker led the way for New Knoxville with 16 points and seven rebounds.

Coldwater takes to the road again tonight as it travels to Shelby County to take on the Fort Loramie Redskins.