Can you top this?

WAPAKONETA - If the excitement of a double-overtime contest in the opening game of the Division IV boys basketball district semifinals wasn't enough, how about a buzzer-beater?

Reece Busse's 3-pointer as time expired gave New Bremen a 40-39 win over second-seeded Minster in Tuesday's nightcap at Wapakoneta High School.

The Cardinals now face St. Henry in Friday's 7 p.m. championship game after the Redskins outlasted top-seeded Perry 63-51 in double overtime in the opening game.

St. Henry defeated New Bremen 45-42 back on Dec. 18 in the team's Midwest Athletic Conference contest.

New Bremen 40, Minster 39

After going undefeated in the MAC and winning its first-ever outright conference title, Minster clawed its way back Tuesday night and took the lead with 35 seconds left, only to watch Busse drain a three at the buzzer to complete the upset.

"It's not over until the clock hits zero," New Bremen coach Cory Stephens said.

After three quarters of keeping the Wildcats in check, the New Bremen defense finally started to give way. Falk hit a trey a minute in to bring the lead down to four, Justin Nixon cut it to two a minute later, and midway through the fourth Falk tied it on a pair of free throws.

Both teams went scoreless for over two minutes before Nixon hit a layup under the basket to give Minster its first lead since the first quarter at 39-37.

Trailing by two, the Cardinals had 35 seconds to answer and Stephens took a timeout with 28 seconds left. Then he took another one with 6.8 seconds left.

"Mind's racing, trying to think of things that we practiced before," Stephens said. "If we don't practiced it, we don't like to utilize it in a game, because that's not putting them in a good situation."

The call became irrelevant almost immediately. The inbounds pass was deflected off a Minster defender, but fortunately the Cardinals' Dave Homan was there to scoop it up. He dribbled a couple steps to his left, fired a pass to Busse, who was alone in the corner, and with less than two seconds left, Busse launched a three. As it fell, the buzzer sounded.

"It's not the first one he's hit this year," Stephens said. "David did a great job of finding him because (Homan) had two guys on him, so he kicked it out. We always say if it's left-right, let it fly, and if you let if fly good things happen."

After the Wildcats got out to a 7-2 lead in the first five minutes, the Cardinals got to work. Trevor Bergman tied the game on a corner three with 2:13 left, Nathan Rindler hit two layups, and David Homan added one of his own to make it 13-7 at the end of the first.

Eric Schmidt hit one of two free throws at the start of the second, but then the New Bremen deluge continued. It was 19-8 with 6:23 left when the Minster defense cracked down to end the 17-1 run.

"At the start we kept pushing the ball a little bit, we were a little bit out of control and we were turning the ball over a little too much," Stephens said. "Once we settled down, and we had to square up every time, once we started doing that, good things happened."

But from there the Wildcats shut it down, allowing just one more point before halftime. The offense was slower to come around, but the deficit was down to six by the half.

After trading baskets most of the third quarter, the Cardinals took a nine-point lead on a layup by Mitchell Hays with 32.6 seconds left in the third. Bryan Falk hit a three on the other end to cut it to six, and Hays drained a three of his own to make it 33-24 to start the fourth.

"It's two well-coached teams, teams that play well," Stephens said. "They're just battling, and it's going to be a battle for 32 minutes."

Busse finished with 11 points in the victory.

Nixon, the MAC Player of the Year, finished with 19 points and 15 rebounds.

St. Henry 63, Perry 51 (2OT)

In the middle of a slugfest with Perry, the St. Henry boys basketball team seemed to run out of steam midway through the fourth quarter.

A four-minute scoring drought left the Redskins down four with two minutes to play, but Logan Lefeld hit a layup to cut it to two and Casey Bruening hit a big three to cut it to one after the Commodores answered.

Bennett Gels swished a trey of his own with 20 seconds remaining to send the game to overtime, and eight minutes and two overtimes later, the Redskins escaped with the win.

"Casey Bruening, a senior, wasn't ready to have his career end," St. Henry coach Eric Rosenbeck said. "He's been, to me, a first-team all-league guy all year. He just makes play after play."

After missing a chance to take a five-point lead late in the first overtime and allowing Perry to tie it up again, the Redskins were totally in control of the final four minutes. After their first possession came up empty, Logan Lefeld hit a second-chance bucket to give St. Henry the lead for good.

Perry's Terry Riley hit one of two free throws on the other end and Lefeld scored again, finishing his day with 19 points and eight rebounds, including seven points and three rebounds in overtime.

"He had a couple great step-throughs, taking patience and ripping the ball high," Rosenbeck said. "He's worked on his game religiously for two years, so I can't be more proud of him."

Leading by three, the Redskins profited from two more missed free throws with 90 seconds to go, and on the next possession Carter Ontrop hit an open three to all but seal the game.

"I yelled, 'No!' " Rosenbeck said. "He let it loose, it went in, and he gave the Michael Jordan shrug, turned around like, 'Well, that's what I am.' But it's his team. We've said that for years here, it's coach Rosenbeck's program but the seniors' team."

It was a physical, back-and-forth game that saw the lead change hands eight times in the first 16 minutes. Trailing 19-17 with just over 90 seconds left in the first half, Bruening stole the ball near midcourt and took it the other way for an off-balance layup under the basket, drawing a foul in the process. Will Knight answered to give Perry back the lead, then Lefeld hit a layup with 45.7 seconds left to make it 22-21 St. Henry.

With Perry waiting to get the last shot, Bennett Gels stole the ball just outside the arc and Lefeld got another one with 5.9 seconds left to give St. Henry a three-point halftime lead.

Before the end of regulation, the lead changed five more times. The Redskins pulled ahead by three midway through the third and again at the start of the fourth, but each time Perry came back.

When the offense fell silent midway through the fourth, St. Henry seemed to be finished. But the Redskins broke through just in time.

"Those seniors, they get the right to take those shots," Rosenbeck said. "It just feels so much better when they go in."