Coldwater 3 party

CELINA - 'Live by the three, die by the three' is an old basketball adage.

The Coldwater Cavaliers lived well by the three on Tuesday night.

The Cavaliers made 8-of-11 three-pointers in the first quarter to build a huge gap quickly and rolled to a 79-41 win over Celina at the Fieldhouse.

Kourtney Diller made five three-pointers in the first half on her way to a game-high 27 points for Coldwater. She outscored Celina 20-14 in the opening half.

Diller and Olivia Harlamert each dropped in three triples in the first quarter and Alli May added two. The Cavs led 27-10 by the end of the frame.

"It helps if you have a Kourtney Diller and a team's going to play a zone," Coldwater coach Connie May said. "She had some wide open looks and she hasn't had looks like that all season because most people know that's who they've got to key on. But the second part is knocking them down. Liv (Harlamert) also got some open looks. … We were a little bit on fire from three."

The Cavs upped their lead to 49-14 by halftime, finishing the first half with 10 treys.

"We knew that they had girls who could shoot, and we just weren't close enough," Celina coach Brandon Steinke said. "It was a combination of them being on and us just not being close enough to make them put it on the ground and shoot twos. That's something we've got to fix as players and as coaches. … We thought we had a pretty good game plan coming in, emphasizing the close outs. But obviously it wasn't enough."

The Bulldogs were more competitive in the second half, though.

Lauren Jackson scored nine of her team-high 17 points in the third quarter.

Celina was outscored just 30-27 in the second half and ended up winning the battle on the boards, 46-43.

"We won the fourth quarter," Steinke pointed out. "That was one of our goals at halftime. I told them I can't guarantee a win tonight, but let's go win something. I think the second half was 27-30. They were a plus three, but we won the fourth quarter and that's something positive we can take into Kenton."

Harlamert and May added 11 points apiece for Coldwater. Lauren Gilliland finished with six points and a game-high 16 rebounds.

The Cavs finished 11-of-26 from deep and forced 29 turnovers.

"We haven't played a zone all season, but we just went to a zone because we weren't stopping the penetration well," coach May said. "Once we went to that, that obviously helped the situation quite a bit. And I think just getting out a little more transition helped taking it to the basket. You know, we still need to finish. There's a lot of little things. We talk about 50-50 balls … we've got to make sure we get more of those if not all of those. Those are the things we've got to continue to improve on. But more than anything it was a great team win because everybody did something."

Brooke Robbins scored nine for Celina. Maddy Luebke totaled six points, 10 boards and added one emphatic block.

Coldwater (3-2) hosts defending Midwest Athletic Conference champion Minster on Thursday.

Celina (0-4) returns to Western Buckeye League play on Thursday, hosting Kenton.