Redskins dominate the Tigers

ST. HENRY - Ryan Mikesell was his usual self Friday night against Versailles.

His St. Henry teammates were really good, too.

Mikesell had game-highs in points (30) and rebounds (17), Mitch Stammen added 18 points, and the Redskins, ranked eighth in the latest Division III state poll, shot a sizzling 11-of-22 from the three-point line in a 72-49 statement win over the sixth-ranked Versailles Tigers in front of a packed house at Redskin Gymnasium.

St. Henry improved to 9-1, 2-0 in the Midwest Athletic Conference. Versailles dropped to 8-2 overall and were dealt their first league loss of the year.

"We were due," Mikesell said. "In practice, we don't miss much. In our last few games against Bath and Knoxville, we made like three or four threes in those games. I mean, we were due for a big game. Luckily, it was tonight."

"Last weekend, I think outside of Ryan the rest of the team was 2-for-27 (on three-pointers)," St. Henry coach Eric Rosenbeck said. "To see some 2-for-5s, 2-for-4s and 2-for-3s is just excellent. The thing is we see it in practice every day. It just hasn't been translating over to games, and I think a lot of it has to do with focus. We were really focused and engaged and knew exactly what we wanted to try to accomplish."

St. Henry's focus on defense was clear - make everything difficult for Kyle Ahrens. What most teams have struggled to do this season, the Redskins had no problems with in limiting the Michigan State-bound senior to 13 points - 15 points under his 28.1 ppg. average - on 5-of-11 shooting.

"Caleb (Bender), Evan (Prenger) and Paul Stammen, they played awesome," commented Mikesell on the job they did against Kyle Ahrens. "They limited his looks. They were up in his stuff and he wasn't getting anything easy. I've got to give those guys a shout out. They played awesome.

"That was the gameplan all week, it was to limit his shots. He's one of the best players in the state, so that's tough to do. But we wanted to limit his shots, get out to the shooters and obviously we did a pretty good job on that."

The Redskins started the game dialed in defensively and lights out on offense, going 6-of-11 from the field in the early going, with Jesse Niekamp's bucket in the paint putting them up 14-4 midway through the opening quarter. The Redskins forced seven Versailles turnovers and Mikesell added a chase down block off the glass on Justin Marshal's layup attempt. Bender cashed two triples in the quarter and his team led 17-7 by the end.

Kyle Ahrens' three-pointer to open the second was his first field goal of the game. He scored eight of his 13 in the period, helping trim the lead down to 24-23 at one point. His brother, Justin, hit back-to-back triples before half, but St. Henry stayed in front 34-29 behind 10 points from Mikesell, who kept his offense rolling in the second half.

The University-of-Dayton-bound senior hit consecutive treys and scored eight points in the opening 2:20 of the third quarter to put his squad back up double figures. The Redskins outscored the Tigers 17-9 and took a 51-38 edge into the fourth.

And they didn't wait long after to deliver the knockout blow.

Evan Prenger and A.J. Niekamp buried back-to-back three-pointers to open the final period and the rout was on. St. Henry led by as much as 25 at one point. Mikesell delivered an exclamation point with a thunderous rim-rocker for his final points of the night.

"Last game against Bath, I had a pretty good first half and then I kind of went away in the second half," Mikesell explained. "(Coach Rosenbeck) said I didn't score for like a 12-minute stretch. He was just stressing to me to attack all game, just keep attacking, and that was kind of just my mindset."

Justin Ahrens led Versailles in scoring with 18 points. The Tigers had 22 points in the second quarter but were limited to 11 points or fewer in the other three.

The Redskins had five players hit two or more three-pointers. Prenger and Bender each scored eight points, while A.J. Niekamp added six. St. Henry outrebounded the Tigers 29-18.

"It was a team rebounding effort," Rosenbeck said. "In general, they were a little bit bigger, had more size than us. We ended up with 29 rebounds and they had 18. Ten of those were offensive. That's effort. It's a great, great team win."

St. Henry hosts Anna tonight before next Friday's MAC showdown at home with defending conference champion Marion Local. St. Henry won the first meeting between the two 62-56 at the Asset Allocation Associates Holiday Classic.