Celina ousted

LIMA - For most of the season, Celina coach Jay Imwalle has referred to his team's third-quarter struggles as a "bugaboo."

Leading Napoleon 32-27 just over a minute into the third quarter on Tuesday night, the bugaboo struck again as the Wildcats went on a 13-0 run to take a 40-32 lead.

The Bulldogs clawed their way back and tied it twice in the final three minutes before Napoleon hits six free throws in the final 1:54 to get a 61-57 win at the Division II sectional opener at Lima Senior High School.

The Wildcats (8-15) face top-seeded Shawnee on Friday at 8 p.m. in the sectional final. Celina ends the season having lost nine straight games in going 5-18.

The teams battled back and forth in the first half with two ties and four lead changes in the first quarter. Celina tried to pull away at the end of the first quarter as Brandon Yenser scored the final five points in less than a minute and then Brett Schwieterman scoring to start the second quarter. The Bulldogs led 17-11 before Napoleon started to come back on buckets from Ed Bump and Mitchell Kruse, but Yenser and Corbin Murphy kept the margin around five until late when the Kruse hit a trey with just over a minute remaining to cut Celina's lead to 28-27 at halftime.

Celina started the third quarter out with buckets from Drake Langenkamp and Schwieterman to raise the lead to 32-27 with 6:43 to go, but it would be over five minutes before the Bulldogs added to the point total as the Wildcats caught fire. Trey Stover started the 13-0 run with a inside shot followed by eight points from Bump and two from Landon Willeman that made the score 40-32 with 2:54 remaining in the quarter as Imwalle called a timeout.

"That's been a bugaboo: a stretch in the third quarter," said Imwalle. "I used a timeout during the run. Even during the run, offensively at times we had good looks. Other times, because of that run, we started forcing things."

Josh Kuehne knocked down a trey with 1:29 remaining in the quarter to stop the run and Langenkamp added a bucket, but Zach Rosebrook hit two treys in the final 68 seconds to put the Wildcats in front 46-37 with eight minutes to play.

Yenser came up big for Celina in the opening minutes of the fourth quarter, scoring seven straight points to get the Bulldogs to within two at 46-44, Celina's defensive pressure picked up to keep Napoleon from trying to pull away. Schwieterman tied the game at 50-all with 4 1/2 minutes remaining. Bump hit a trey with four minutes to go, only to have Schwieterman bury a 3-pointer seconds later to keep the game tied. Two free throws by Logan Shepard put the Wildcats up by two again, but Yenser hit a pair of his own to make it 55-all with 2:14 to play.

"Give our kids credit. They fought back," said Imwalle. "They got it tied. We got some tips out of our three-quarters court press."

Kruse hit one free throw to put the Wildcats in front to stay at 56-55. Willeman and Rosebrook added two each to raise the margin to 60-55. Celina missed some key shots, but Shepard and Bump missed four straight free throws to give Celina a glimmer of hope. Willeman hit one last free throw with 7.9 seconds left to make it a three-possession game. Yenser scored before the buzzer to close the game out.

"I told the kids, had we been able to get the lead, it's maybe a different game," said Imwalle. "You expend so much energy trying to get back to (being tied)."

Yenser finished with a game-high 22 points on 8 of 13 shooting. Schwieterman closes out his high school career with 11 points.

Bump scored 21 to lead Napoleon. Willeman added 12 and Kruse and Rosebrook each finished with 10.