Wildcats top Indians

MINSTER - Last year's game between Minster and Fort Recovery was one of the most thrilling of the season.

This year's game, however, lacked the same excitement of last year's quadruple-overtime affair.

Mike Ketner scored 17 points and Jarod Schulze tallied 12 points and 10 rebounds in his return from a concussion as the Wildcats pulled away from the Indians with an 18-6 run in the third quarter en route to a 55-44 victory on Senior Night in Minster.

"The St. Marys loss hit us hard," Minster coach Mike McClurg said. "For us to be able to come back from that and get a bounce-back win, I'm pretty happy for our guys."

The Wildcats improved to 12-7 overall and 5-3 in Midwest Athletic Conference play. The Indians dropped to 11-9 and 2-9 in conference play.

Minster scored the first seven points of the game, but Fort Recovery made a 6-2 run to close the quarter. The teams were a combined 6-of-22 from the field.

A 3-pointer by Payton Jutte 2 1/2 minutes into the second quarter tied the game for the first time at 11-all. That, however, was the last time the score was knotted. Ketner scored seven of his nine first-half points in the quarter as the Wildcats finished with an 11-5 spurt for a 22-16 lead by break.

Jutte scored 13 of his team's 16 points, connecting on 3-of-5 field goal attempts and 5-of-6 at the line. The rest of the Indians were a combined 0-of-16 shooting.

Ketner hit a jumper from the corner pocket and added a layup to stretch Minster's lead to 26-16 in the opening minute of the third quarter. Six different Wildcats scored in the quarter as they opened up a 21-point lead at one point.

"What we talked about in the locker room is we want to make sure that we kept them away from the rim," McClurg said. "I think in the first half, they only got one shot near the rim and that was the biggest thing for us. Because if we can do that, if we can stop them from getting layups, we can get out and go in transition. We're pretty good when we can get out and go in transition."

Fort Recovery shot 2-of-16 in the third. Ryan Braun scored all six Indian points in the final 3 minutes and they trailed 40-22 after three quarters.

"If we could have made just half of our layups we would have been in it," Fort Recovery coach Mike Bashore said. "I counted at least 12 before I stopped counting. But hats off to them. They play with a lot of intensity. They kind of force you into taking some off-balance shots. When you go into the lane, you're kind of looking out for the Schulze kid. We just didn't have it tonight and then it kind of got away from us in the third quarter."

Derek Jutte and Braun scored eight apiece in the fourth quarter for the Indians, but they could never get the deficit below 11 points.

"I think Braun got to the rim a little too much in the second half, but he's quick," McClurg said. "He and (Payton) Jutte are both quick. I thought we did a good job on Payton all game, with the exception of the first quarter. We lost him a couple of times when we shouldn't have, but outside of that, I thought we did a good job on him and we guarded everyone else pretty well. It helps having Jarod back protecting the rim."

Braun scored 14 and Payton Jutte added 13 for the Indians, who finished 13-of-53 from the field in the loss.

"I thought the freshmen we played in the fourth quarter played pretty well," Bashore said. "They had their starters in for a decent amount of the quarter. We cut it down to 11. I was pretty happy with the effort. But when you're not making baskets, it's hard to get the momentum going."

Both teams are back in action tonight. Minster travels to Spencerville and Fort Recovery visits McComb.