'Skins, Cardinals advance

ST. MARYS - St. Henry boys basketball coach Eric Rosenbeck knew that when playing a fellow MAC team, the record is a moot point.

The Redskins got a good taste of that philosophy on Wednesday night when two-win New Knoxville gave them all they could handle before the Redskins escaped St. Marys' Murotech Court with a 48-43 victory in the Division IV Sectional semifinals.

St. Henry (11-12) now plays New Bremen (13-10) on Friday at 8 p.m. after the Cardinals fended off a tough Ridgemont squad for a 64-53 win in the first game of the night. St. Henry won the regular season meeting 53-41 at Cardinal Gymnasium.

St. Henry 48,
New Knoxville 43

The Rangers, entering the game at 2-20 and having not won a game since Dec. 21, came out ready to play as Owen Carroll hit the opening bucket, followed by a 3-pointer from Sammy Anspach to put the Rangers up 5-0 just over a minute into the game.

St. Henry began to work its way back, taking its first lead at 10-9 on a Carter Ontrop bucket. The Redskins led 14-12 after one quarter and went up 17-12 to start the second on a Riley Link trey. Ben Evers' trey put St. Henry up 22-18 with three minutes remaining before the Rangers shut them down for the rest of the half. Patrick Covert converted a pair of free throws with just under two minutes remaining to compete a quarter-ending 5-0 run to give New Knoxville a 23-22 halftime lead.

"You can't play a MAC team and think it's going to be anything but a dogfight," said Rosenbeck. "A ton of credit to New Knoxville. I thought our kids were prepared. We had nice practices, but New Knoxville was making shots."

"Kids played their hearts out," said Rangers coach Mike Piatt. "We've been playing people tough the whole second half of the season. Really happy with our effort."

The third quarter was as feisty as the first half with two ties and three lead changes. Carson Bierlein, Anspach and Carroll hit big baskets to keep the Rangers within shouting distance. Logan Lefeld had five big points to put the Redskins in front 35-34 with eight minutes to play.

Still, the Rangers refused to concede.

St. Henry went up 40-34 a minute into the fourth quarter, but the Rangers inched back as Bierlein went on a personal 6-2 run to cut their deficit to 42-40 with 2:56 remaining in regulation. Bennett Gels got fouled as he made a bucket with 1:19 to play, but missed the and-1 to make it 44-40. Anspach came up with another clutch trey to make the score 44-43 with 47.3 seconds remaining. Forced to foul, Evers was put at the line with 32.3 seconds to go, making the one-and-bonus to make it a three-point game. The Rangers next shot attempt by Bierlein was blocked and rebounded by Gels, who was fouled and hit the clinching free throws with 9.5 seconds remaining.

"I give our kids so much credit for gutting it out, not pouting or whining. They just kept making plays," said Rosenbeck. "Bennett had the huge stickback, Ben Evers had some monumental free throws. Logan Lefeld was terrific around the rim."

Link finished with 11 to lead St. Henry. Ontrop added 10.

Bierlein led all scorers with 18. Anspach, who made just six 3-pointers during the regular season, was 5-of-8 from the arc to finish with 15 points.

"We had some kids step up," said Piatt. "Sammy missed the whole preseason with shoulder surgery and then had a high ankle sprain. He only played 13 games for us. Carson was good, Patrick was good and I thought Owen Carroll played well against their pressure. Wins didn't show it this year, but we're heading in the right direction."

New Bremen 64,
Ridgemont 53

The Cardinals and Golden Gophers came out shooting in the opening quarter. The lead changed three times in the first 5 1/2 minutes to go along with two ties. Dan Homan came up with several big shots to help New Bremen take a 14-9 lead after eight minutes.

Ridgemont, which finished behind Perry and Upper Scioto Valley in the Northwest Central Conference standings, kept plugging after getting down 23-16 with 4:50 remaining in the half. Mason Stuck and Landon Newland knocked down big shots and Jayden Streets scored with 25 seconds remaining to put the Gophers in front 26-25 at the half.

"(Ridgemont) has some kids who can score. They've got 15 wins for a reason," said Cardinals coach Cory Stephens.

The Cardinals took control in the opening minutes of the third quarter as Newland hit a free throw to tie the game at 27-all. Patrick Wells broke the tie with a bucket, followed by Reece Busse knocking down a trey to make it 32-27. Nolan Bornhorst then scored on back-to-back possessions to complete a 10-0 run to put the Cardinals in front 37-27 as Ridgemont quickly called a timeout to stop the run.

"The mindset (coming out for the second half) was we had to be aggressive," said Stephens. "It wasn't there in the second quarter and that's what did us in. Third quarter, we came out with that fire. That's what got us the big lead."

Leading 46-41 with a quarter to play, New Bremen tried to keep the offense going, but Ridgemont was able to cut it to 48-45 with 4 1/2 minutes to play. Zach Bertke, who came off the bench in the third and fourth quarters, had a layup and a trey on back-to-back possessions, putting the Cardinals up by eight. The Gophers started fouling to put the pressure on the Cardinals at the foul line, but Bremen made 11-of-12 free throws in the final 1:41, and got the offensive rebound on the lone miss.

"The key was the fourth quarter," said Stephens. "We were 11-of-12 at the line."

Bornhorst scored 10 of his game-high 22 points in the third quarter. Wells and Dan Homan each finished with 10.

Newland led the Gophers (15-8) with 19 points. Stuck had a double-double with 13 points and 11 rebounds.