Hot shooting lifts Cavs to victory

COLDWATER - After falling just short in the first four games of the season, the Coldwater boys basketball team was looking to get the break it needed on Friday as the Cavaliers hosted St. Marys, a team that got a late start due to football and lost its opener last week.

The two teams battled back and forth in the first half before the Cavaliers took a two-point lead into the half and then pulled away in the third quarter to pick up a 61-45 win at the Palace.

"I told the guys we got a monkey off our back," Coldwater coach Nick Fisher said after getting the win. "It wasn't pretty. We've been persevering the last couple weeks and we're getting better. It's just the matter of staying the course."

St. Marys (0-2), which lost its opener to Ottawa-Glandorf last Friday, started out hot as well a Braeden Dunlap, Carter Ballweg and Ethan Steger hit big buckets early and got the Roughriders out to a 17-14 lead after one quarter. St. Marys was up as many as five points at 28-23 after Dunlap scored with 2:03 left in the half before Coldwater came back. Cole Frilling got the run going with a 3-pointer to cut it to 28-26. After a scoreless possession by the Roughriders, Noah Miller, scored to tie the game with 56 seconds left. Coldwater (1-4) held St. Marys on its next possession and took a 30-28 lead on a Justin Schwieterman stickback with seven seconds left.

"Not a lot of fouls or turnovers. Shots were going in on both sides … I thought the first half was solid both ways," said Fisher.

The hot streak continued for Coldwater in the third quarter as Jacob Wenning dialed up a trey 27 seconds into the third quarter. After a St. Marys trey from Ballweg, Marcus Bruns dialed long distance for a triple to make it 36-31. The Roughriders got as close as 36-33, but a Ben Wenning bucket was followed by Bruns hitting a technical foul free throw as Coldwater began to pull away. Jake Wenning's four-point play with 1:42 left in the quarter put the Cavaliers up by 11 at 46-35 and Coldwater was up eight at 48-40 going to the final quarter.

"Bad things happened and we didn't handle it very well," said St. Marys coach Craig Szymczak. "We're going to have ups and downs in games. When we had that down, instead of picking each other up, we looked at each other to see what would happen. We can't have that."

"We just put some pressure on them," Fisher said. "We know how that feels to get that late start (due to football). It's tough to get your legs under you. I'm proud of the effort."

St. Marys tried to stay close, but Bruns and Miller hit shots early in the fourth quarter to extend the lead. Down the stretch, the Cavaliers were 6 of 8 from the foul line to hold off any final Roughrider comeback bid.

"We're heading in the right path, but it's that little hump," Szymczak said. "When we find a way to win and understand what it takes to win, we're going to do some good things."

Bruns finished with 17 points and added five assists and five steals to lead Coldwater. Miller scored 15 points and Frilling had 12 points and seven boards.

"I think we're getting valuable minutes out of Grant (Meyer), Myles (Blasingame), Jake (Hemmelgarn), you can go right down the list," said Fisher. "Playing defense, rebounding and doing the dirty work. We've got a lot of guys who have bought in."

Dunlap led St. Marys with 15 points. Ballweg and Steger each finished with 11.

Both teams are in action tonight. Coldwater travels south to face Greenville and St. Marys opens the home portion of the schedule against Parkway.