Roughriders defeat up Bulldogs in tourney tuneup

ST. MARYS - When its primary scorer is pressured, a team needs players to step up.

St. Marys got that on Friday when Celina focused its pressure on the Roughriders' Austin Parks.

With Parks under wraps, Kyle Steininger hit the outside shots to help the Roughriders get out to a 15-point lead at halftime and never look back in winning the Battle of Grand Lake 59-37 at Grand Lake Health System Court in the Western Buckeye League finale.

St. Marys wraps up the regular season at 14-7 and 6-3 in the WBL as Celina finishes 2-7 in the WBL and moves to 6-15 heading into tonight's finale at Bryan.

The first five minutes of the game as a back-and-forth battle that saw five lead changes. Braylon Gabes put Celina in front 11-10 with a 3-pointer with 3:34 to play in the quarter, only to have Jace Turner score a bucket 15 seconds later to put the Riders in front to stay at 12-11.

That's when Steininger caught fire, knocking down the first of three first-half threes with under two minutes to play. Celina got three quick points to cut the margin to 15-14, but then went cold for the next four minutes, allowing the Roughriders to go on a 7-0 run to push the lead to 22-18 before Dylan Feister scored to snap the Bulldogs' drought.

The Bulldogs then were held to two points over the final 4:26 of the second quarter as Steininger and Gavin Reineke hit big shots to put the Roughriders in front 33-18 at the half.

"Kyle's been playing better and better," said St. Marys coach Dan Hegemier. "He had a tough weekend last (week). Took some shots (tonight), was wide open. That's what a varsity basketball player has to do. When you have three guys on Austin, someone has to be open."

"We had a bad stretch of turnovers right at the (end) of the first quarter into the second quarter," said Celina coach Adam Johns. "I think had six turnovers in the second quarter. That hurt us. At least led to layups. Makes it even more of an uphill climb from there."

With the Bulldogs now having to play straight-up on defense to keep the treys in check, Parks began to break free and get buckets. Parks made all five of his second-half shots, including a big dunk in front of the St. Marys student section, to finish with 16 points to lead the Roughriders.

"It's difficult to catch up when they throw it into him. Almost a guaranteed bucket, or foul in some cases," said Johns, himself a former Roughrider standout.

Steininger had all 13 of his points in the first half, going a perfect 5-of-5 from the field, including 3-of-3 from the arc.

Josh Rasawehr was the only Bulldog in double figures, scoring 15 points to go along with a game-high seven rebounds.

Hegemier knows that if the Roughriders see the Bulldogs again next week, provided Celina defeats Kenton in the opener of the Division II Lima Senior sectional, his team will need to be ready.

"We have to keep getting better and better," said Hegemier, "If we're playing Celina next week at this time, we'll have to do a much better job, to tell you the truth."