Second-half spark

NEW BREMEN - After trailing Celina the entire first half, New Bremen came out in the third quarter ready to flip the script.

It took just 25 seconds before Reece Busse hit a 3-pointer to give the Cardinals their first lead of the night, and New Bremen never trailed the rest of the way en route to a 38-27 win at the Nest on Friday night.

"He's been constantly in the gym shooting, working on his game, working in the weight room to get some strength," New Bremen coach Cory Stephens said of Busse. "I told him at the half, 'Just come out and play. You're a player, play.' And that's what he did."

The Bulldogs didn't go down without a fight, coming back from a 20-15 deficit midway through the third quarter to tie the game at 22 on a free throw from Dylan Feister with 18 seconds left. But New Bremen's Dave Homan responded with a 3 in the waning seconds and the Cardinals pulled away in the fourth.

"We just got all out of sorts with their pressure (late), got a little loose with the basketball, gave up some turnovers," Celina coach Adam Johns said. "It happens, it's game number two. Didn't expect everything to go perfect."

Early on, it was all Celina, as New Bremen struggled to find the basket and the Bulldogs picked up six takeaways. It was 8-0 six minutes in before Busse hit a layup for the Cardinals' first points. But the Bulldogs led 10-4 after the first quarter.

"We needed to limit their dribble penetration and did a great job, especially in the first half," Johns said. "Taking care of the offensive glass for them, we limited them to three, maybe four offensive rebounds that didn't lead to any baskets, which we can live with. Big reason we held them to 38 points."

New Bremen came back, though, finishing the second quarter without a turnover and cutting the deficit to 15-13. Dan Homan couldn't get a shot off before the buzzer as the Cardinals went into halftime down two.

But the reprieve didn't last long for the Bulldogs.

"We have the mentality that we're going to shoot the ball 9-for-10," Stephens said. "10-for-10, that would be great, but we got to think we're going to hit nine out of 10. So if I just missed one, that's my one, now I got to hit nine straight. That's just got to be our mentality, short-term."

Both teams struggled to shoot at times, even as their defenses forced one turnover after another. For Celina, most of the offensive output came from Josh Rasawehr in the paint. Rasawehr accounted for 13 points, including all five for the Bulldogs in the fourth quarter.

"He's put a lot of time in," Johns said. "He's gotten a lot better from this year to last year, and the biggest thing, he's gotten stronger. He can play through a little bit of physical contact, different things like that, which is huge for a guy playing on the inside."

But as Rasawehr went, so went the Bulldogs, and the Cardinals defense held him to two points total in the second and third quarters.

"We knew he was a great player, watching film and even last year playing against them," Stephens said. "He's a great player, so our goal was to try to take him out of the game. We did in the middle of the game."

For New Bremen, Busse and Dave Homan hit key shots, with Busse's 17 points leading the Cardinals.

Both teams were scheduled to play tonight but the games were postponed. New Bremen, whose scheduled game with St. Marys was moved to Jan. 5, hosts backyard rival Minster next Friday in Midwest Athletic Conference play while Celina, which was scheduled to play at Toledo Bowsher tonight, instead opens Western Buckeye League play next Friday at Shawnee.