Cardinals edge Riders

ST. MARYS - A copious number of fouls were called on New Bremen and St. Marys during Saturday's contest.

All that mattered to Cardinal coach Adam Dougherty when the dust settled was the end result: a win.

Avery Powers scored 21 points, and the Cardinals picked up their first victory of the season with a 60-55 victory over St. Marys at Murotech Court.

"We're trying to figure it out right now," Dougherty said. "When we get a little adversity, we go back to bad habits. But we took a step forward tonight. The (Austin) Wilker kid goes off and they're making play after play. A little bit of that was on us, but a lot of it is he's a really good player. He got loose a couple times. ... But we just found a way to make plays and made free throws down the stretch."

Combined, the teams had 51 fouls and 64 free throw attempts. Miraculously, only two players fouled out. The game lasted nearly two hours but it was entertaining.

Powers had seven points in the first quarter. St. Marys was held scoreless until the three-minute mark, when Colin Clements hit a fall away from the corner with a hand in the face. The Roughriders made 1-of-8 field goals in the frame and trailed 13-3.

But Austin Wilker provided the Riders with offense in the second quarter, scoring seven points in the first three minutes to help them pull within four points at 19-15.

He wasn't done.

Wilker followed with his second trey of the quarter and split a pair at the free throw line to tie the score for the first time at 23-all with 1:30 left in the half.

Powers scored five more points in the quarter for New Bremen, which clung to a 27-25 lead at break.

The Cardinals re-upped their lead to 12 at 39-27 with a 12-2 run to open the third. Powers and Luke Vonderhaar scored five apiece during the run and Nolan Bornhorst added two. Wilker led St. Marys on an 8-0 run to follow, and St. Marys went into the fourth with a three-point deficit.

"I thought we had a really good start to the game and a really good start to the third quarter," Dougherty said. "Then our minds kind of wandered."

The score was tied one minute later after Drew Jacobs knocked down a pair at the line. A jumper by Clements gave St. Marys its first lead at 45-43 with five minutes to play. Bornhorst followed by splitting a pair at the line. Grant Hoehne collected Bornhorst's missed free throw and scored to put the Cards back in front.

A three-pointer by Austin Wilker made the score 52-50 with 2:05 remaining. Powers followed with a layup and Andrew Bowers added a free throw to extend Bremen's lead to 55-50. A three-point play by Wilker and two free throws by Ethan Mielke tied the game with 43 seconds on the clock.

But Andrew Bowers was fouled on his way up the court and hit 1-of-2 at the stripe. Bryce Blickle kept New Bremen's possession alive with an offensive rebound. Powers drove and found Vonderhaar for an easy bucket.

The Roughriders missed at the other end and Bornhorst knocked down two free throws to ice it.

"We've got to make our free throws and if we make our shots down low, I think it's a whole different ballgame," St. Marys coach Craig Szymczak said. "I think we went 15-of-28 from the line. We had a lot of critical misses around the basket. I thought we could kind of get to the basket at will. We've just got to be confident and finish."

"It was a solid team win," Dougherty said. "We took a ton of charges tonight, stepped in front and kept stepping in front. That's the only way we can survive, if we guard together and are willing to play for one another."

Powers did his damage on 9-of-17 shooting, including 2-of-5 from behind the arc. He also had five steals.

"He's a scorer, man," Dougherty said. "He's got a knack for being able to shoot the gap and get one and he's got a really quick release. He just works really hard at it."

Vonderhaar added 12 for New Bremen and Bornhorst nine.

Wilker shared game-high honors with 21 points for St. Marys. Ethan Mielke added eight.