Wildcats rally to defeat Cavaliers

MINSTER - "It's not the size of the dog in the fight, it's the size of the fight in the dog." - Mark Twain

The Minster boys basketball team is living proof.

The undersized Wildcats faced a bigger Coldwater team on Friday night, led by 6-foot-9 Andy Brunet.

They faced a big deficit after the Cavaliers opened the game on a 13-0 run.

The Wildcats stayed scrappy, stayed hungry and came back to stun the Cavaliers 53-50 to give themselves a chance at earning a share of the Midwest Athletic Conference lead next Friday at Versailles.

"I couldn't be happier for the kids," Minster coach Mike Lee said. "We were up-down, up-down throughout the course of the first half of the season. Since 2016 has hit, this basketball team has been battling every Friday and Saturday."

After being a punching bag for 7 1/2 minutes, Minster took the fight to Coldwater until the final buzzer sounded.

Coldwater coasted out to a 13-0 lead in the first four minutes and led 17-4 with 30 seconds to go in the first quarter. But Minster's bench sparked an end-of-quarter rally. Aaron Ernst, Jared Thobe and Jared Huelsman scored all of Minster's points in the final 3 minutes and 10 seconds. Ernst scored four points, Jared Thobe added a bucket and Huelsman stole a Coldwater inbounds pass and hit a three-pointer as time expired to make the score 17-9.

"We weren't getting a whole lot offensively," Lee said. "We just got caught standing around. It was a situation where we work on a package the whole week of preparation and then in the first three minutes we throw it out and decide we need to try something different. I just kept thinking, we've got to use our depth like we have, and boy, we had some kids come in who gave us some immediate contributions."

Minster trimmed the margin to four points numerous times in the second quarter before a Brunet bucket and a Marcus Bruns' trey extended the lead back to nine at 27-18 with 2:40 left. Dylan Thobe scored all 12 of his points in the first half and the Cavs maintained that nine-point cushion at break.

That lead was wiped away quickly as Minster went on a 21-5 run in the third quarter, turning a nine-point deficit into a seven-point lead.

Josh Nixon scored four points to get Minster rolling and then Jacob Stechschulte followed with a pull-up jumper. Stechschulte hit another jumper while getting fouled to give Minster its first lead of the game at 39-37 with 1:27 left in the third. On the Wildcats' next possession, Ernst got fouled while nailing a trey. He missed the free throw, but teammate Conner Tumbusch collected the offensive rebound, then flipped it back to a cutting Ernst for a layup to put Minster in front 44-37.

"Sometimes it's tougher playing with the lead than it is playing from behind," Coldwater coach Mike Bruns said. "You're playing with that lead and they're picking up aggressiveness. We're kind of playing to protect the lead, instead of continuing to attack the basket, continuing to take care of the ball, continuing to do the things that got you that lead in the first place."

Brunet connected on a pair of close-range buckets and Coldwater outscored Minster 11-4 to open the fourth quarter. Aaron Harlamert's three-pointer tied the game at 48-all with 2:40 to play. Stechschulte, though, came right back down the floor and banked in a shot on the next possession and Minster led the rest of the way.

Brunet could have tied the game again with two free throws at the 1:04 mark but made just one. Stechschulte left the door open for Coldwater when he missed the front-end of a 1-and-1 with 25 seconds left. Looking to feed Brunet for the go-ahead shot, the pass was batted down and Jared Huelsman was fouled after recovering it. He went to the line and hit both for a 52-49 lead with 7.6 seconds to play.

Coldwater took a timeout to set up a play. The ensuing inbounds pass attempt was intercepted at half-court by Tumbusch, who was fouled and put the game out of reach by hitting 1-of-2 at the line.

"Well-coached teams like Minster, they're not going to just sit down and die," said coach Bruns, whose team committed 15 turnovers and shot 11-of-20 from the free throw line. "They are a very good team. They've had a history of always playing well defensively and not quitting. I credit Mike Lee for that. Their kids played really hard and they didn't quit even when they were down."

Brunet led Coldwater with 15 points and 11 rebounds. Thobe had 12 points and Harlamert added 11 for the Cavs (11-6, 5-2 MAC), who have a road game at state-ranked Tri-Village tonight.

Ernst scored a game-high 17 points for the Wildcats on 7-of-8 shooting. Stechschulte added 10 for Minster (11-7, 5-2 MAC), now winners of three consecutive MAC games. Minster hosts St. Marys tonight before next Friday's MAC showdown with Versailles, which clinched a share of the title with a 61-46 win over Delphos St. John's.

"We've kind of flown under the radar, but now we've got an opportunity," Lee said. "We've taken care of business these last couple of weeks to get ourselves in position. It's going to be a great atmosphere next Friday night."