An old fashioned battle

NEW BREMEN - Tuesday's girls' basketball game between New Bremen and Fort Loramie was a typical scrappy game between the teams.

The Cardinals took the lead for good late in the second quarter and then held off the Redskins for the final 16 minutes in winning 49-41 at Cardinals Gymnasium to improve to 7-1.

The scrappiness early in the contest made for a sluggish start as Fort Loramie (4-3) led 7-5 as both teams struggled to connect on even bunny shots.

"When you play in a big game, teams play tight. That's what you saw," New Bremen coach Chris Burden said.

"We had to fight all night. Things were a little hapless tonight.

The Cardinals took their first lead of the game early in the second quarter at 9-7 on a Kelly Naylor bucket. Kenzie Hoelscher quickly tied the game as both teams traded the lead. The Redskins were up 15-14 when Paige Jones tied the game with one free throw. Then 40 seconds later Kayla Bergman made a pair of foul shots to give the Cardinals a 17-15 lead, which they would not surrender the rest of the game.

The second half was a contest of New Bremen working to build its lead and of Fort Loramie whittling away at the deficit. Just when the Redskins got within a point or two, as they had done with 3 1/2 minutes left in the third quarter. Macy Imwalle hit a three-pointer to get Loramie to within one at 27-26, but the Cardinals answered quickly with Macy Puthoff and Naylor hitting free throws to cushion the lead.

"At halftime, we talked about extending our lead," Burden said. "We talked about the same things at the break between the third and fourth quarters to put the pressure back on."

The Cardinals had a great shot of applying the coup de grâce and putting the Redskins away at the start of the fourth quarter. Two straight buckets by Naylor, free throws from Abbi Thieman and then a Jones basket gave the Cardinals a 10-point lead at 38-28 with 5:18 remaining. Fort Loramie made a run to get back and got as close as four points in the final 30 seconds. New Bremen, however, connected on its foul shots by making 13-of-16 in the final period and 7-of-8 in the final 97 seconds.

"Two great teams going at it tonight," Burden said. "We were the lucky one to come out on top tonight."

'That's a great athletic team. Sometimes you just run into that," Fort Loramie coach Carla Siegel said. "They did a better job executing on offense than we did."

Jones finished with 17 points to lead New Bremen. Naylor scored six of her 10 points in the fourth quarter.

Taylor Ratermann led Fort Loramie with 10 points.

New Bremen travels to McGuffey to face Upper Sctoto Valley on Thursday. The junior varsity game that evening will last two quarters.