Battle in Bremen

NEW BREMEN - Both Minster coach Mike McClurg and New Bremen coach Adam Dougherty were proud of their teams' effort on Friday night in the Battle of Route 66.

It's a shame someone had to go home with a mark on the wrong side of the ledger.

Jarod Schulze's layup with 1:58 remaining in regulation gave Minster the lead and then Mike Ketner hit six free throws over the final 1:09 to seal the Wildcats' 48-43 win in MAC play at Cardinal Gymnasium.

The teams traded the lead four times in the final period as the Wildcats (8-2, 3-0 MAC) had to fight from behind after the Cardinals came out with a strong start.

The Cardinals put pressure on Minster right away, resulting in eight first-quarter turnovers and a scoreless start that was finally snapped on a Cody Frericks field goal with 2:56 left in the opening quarter.

The field goal by Frericks got the Minster offense kick-started, but every time the Wildcats were able to get within a point or two, timely shooting by the Cardinals increased the lead to 21-14 at halftime.

"I've said all week that those guys play hard," McClurg said of New Bremen. "People don't understand that they're the hardest-playing team in the MAC. ... We knew that coming in, but until you experience it, you don't know how to fight back. The big thing for us was 'How are we going to fight back?' "

The tide turned early in the third quarter as the Wildcats came back with a 6-0 run to get the score to 21-20. Grant Hoehne raised the lead back to three, but a pair of Frericks free throws were followed by an Adam Knapke bucket with 4:16 to go to give the Wildcats their first lead at 24-23. A Luke Vonderhaar three-pointer gave back the lead to New Bremen and later the Cardinals led 28-24. But Schulze added a two-pointer and Knapke knocked down a three-pointer to help put Minster in front 32-21 heading to the fourth quarter.

"We really didn't wear down as much as a couple of our mistakes lead to us scrambling and not being in position," Dougherty said.

"Once we got (how to contend with New Bremen's pressure) down, things started to loosen up," McClurg said. "We didn't shoot all that well (16-of-44 from the field), but that was New Bremen's defense."

Hoehne put the Cardinals (5-9, 1-3 MAC) back in front 33-32 to start the fourth quarter and then four straight points from Nolan Bornhorst put the Cardinals in front 37-34. The Wildcats roared back to regain the lead at 38-37 on a Schulze stickback, but Bornhorst drove the basket and was fouled, getting the bucket but missing the free throw to make it 39-38 Cardinals.

After the trading of possessions, Hoehne made one of two from the stripe to make the score 40-38, but Frericks came up big with a bucket to tie the game with 2:58 left in regulation. The Cardinals missed several big shots over two possessions, but the Wildcats hit paydirt on Schulze's bunny with under two minutes to play that put Minster up 42-20. After another missed basket, New Bremen was forced to foul and Ketner ended up the shooter. Ketner calmly stepped to the line three straight times and hit six all six free throws to keep the Cardinals at bay.

"He shoots all the time," McClurg said of Ketner, who entered the game shooting 75 percent from the line. "He wakes up and shoots free throws and will probably go home and shoot free throws. Pretty proud of him for knocking them down."

"Our kids played really hard tonight," Dougherty said. "We played well in certain stretches. There were a couple of runs in the fourth quarter we had a hand in.

"Minster is a solid team," Dougherty continued. "There's a reason they're 8-2. They have a lot of weapons and their bigs (6-6 Frericks and 6-8 Schulze) are physical."

Schulze finished with a 12-point, 11-rebound performance. Ketner added 10 and Frericks had eight points and 13 rebounds.

Bornhorst was the only Cardinal in double figures with 15.

Minster has another short road trip along State Route 66 tonight, this time heading south to face Division IV top-ranked Fort Loramie. New Bremen is off until next Friday when the Cardinals make the short trip north to face New Knoxville.