Wildcats roll to sixth straight victory

ST. MARYS - In typical fashion, Minster played aggressive defense and relentlessly pounded the ball inside on offense.

The result was also typical.

Rosie Westerbeck netted 19 points, Courtney Prenger added 18 and the Wildcats limited St. Marys to 28.5 percent shooting in a 58-49 victory on Tuesday at Murotech Court to improve to 6-0 on the season.

"We're learning. We're still growing, but we are pretty happy with where we're at right now," Minster coach Mike Wiss said. "I think we look confident. I think we feel confident, and I don't want anything more than confident. We feel pretty good about ourselves, but I can tell you this: I'm not going to let them feel more than pretty good."

Tuesday's game was the first time this season the Wildcats did not win by a double-digit margin. They were, however, up by double figures most of the night until the final minute of the game.

Westerbeck hit her last five shots of the first, mostly from point-blank range, on her way to 10 points. Prenger scored the other eight for the Wildcats during the frame as they built an 18-9 lead while holding St. Marys to 3-of-12 shooting.

"I ask our kids to be an inside-out team," Wiss said. "We have three girls over 6-foot and two more posts behind them. We have to utilize (what) our inside strength is, and if that starts to work, it makes the outside work as well.

"Rosie scoring those 10 points in the first quarter was huge," he added. "Sometimes it's Courtney. Sometimes it's Rosie or Lindsey (Roetgerman) or Ali (Borgerding). Today it was Rosie and then you always have Courtney to come back to."

The Roughriders went 0-of-7 from the field in the second quarter but kept in the game by hitting 9-of-14 at the free throw line. The Roughriders were in the bonus one minute into the quarter. Still, Minster held a double-digit lead the entire quarter and led 32-18 at the break.

"I was happy with our defense in the first half," Wiss admitted. "I asked our girls this week for transition like we ran it against Van Wert and half-court defense like we played against Coldwater. We worked on accomplishing those two things in the first half."

St. Marys' Shania Taylor, who scored a game-high 22 points, traded baskets with Minster on three straight possessions to open the third quarter but had to leave after picking up her fourth personal foul. The Roughriders could never get the lead below 13 points, and by the end, Minster's advantage swelled to 21 at 48-27 after Westerbeck and Ali Borgerding combined for 12 points in the quarter.

Facing mainly Minster's reserves in the fourth quarter, St. Marys scratched the margin down to nine but ran out of time.

Makenna Mele had a double-double with 10 points and 10 boards for the Roughriders, who fell to 6-2 with their only two losses coming to last year's WBL co-champion (Ottawa-Glandorf) and MAC champion (Minster).

"Good teams concentrate on defense," St. Marys coach Nikki Miars said. "You've got the O-Gs and you've got the Minsters and that's what they hang their hat on. That's what we're trying to do here. We're trying to concentrate on the defensive end, because I think that's where it starts.  

"I thought in the first half we kind of came out in a daze, but we didn't give up."

St. Marys travels to meet Sidney on Thursday. The Wildcats are off until Dec. 28 when they travel to take part in the McDonald's Holiday Classic at Bath High School.