MAC Battles

COLDWATER - One Midwest Athletic Conference co-champion moved on Friday night, while another is going home.

Marion Local's defense stifled Minster in the first half and the offense matched the Wildcats in the second for a 44-37 win in the nightcap of a pair of Division IV boys basketball sectional finals at Coldwater.

In the opener, St. Henry came out hot, survived a New Bremen counterpunch, and sent the Cardinals into the offseason with a 61-55 victory.

The Flyers and Redskins will meet for the third time this season in the opener of the Wapakoneta district semifinals on Tuesday, with tipoff set for 5:30 p.m. Spencerville and Perry will play in the nightcap.

"Whoever comes out of the Wapak district will have earned it," Marion coach Kurt Goettemoeller said. "When we go over there next Tuesday, that is a regional. We have to win a regional to get out of our district, because there's four regional-quality teams over there."

Marion Local 44, Minster 37

After a low-scoring first half, Marion came out swinging to start the third. The Flyers' pressure forced a turnover in the front court and Jadyn Mescher scored on a fast break to make it 18-14, the Wildcats committed an over-and-back turnover, and Jack Knapke got the ball in the paint and hit a layup with 7:11 left in the third.

Minster (6-18) missed two shots on the next possession and Knapke hit another layup to stretch the lead to eight, but the Wildcats were far from done. Devan Wuebker scored twice in 45 seconds, and after Tate Hess put back a miss after a series of offensive rebounds, Austin Wellman hit a three from the right elbow to make it 24-21 with 2:52 left in the quarter.

The Flyers came up empty on their next possession and Wuebker launched a trey from almost the exact same spot, draining the shot to knot it up at 24.

"We thought we were going to win that game," Minster coach Michael McClurg. "I think everyone on that team thought we had a really good shot to win. Not a lot of teams would do that when we're 6-17."

But Marion needed just 20 seconds before Hudson Rose came open in the right corner and took a pass from Brady Ronnebaum, then swished a three to put the Flyers back up three.

"That's not his forte at all," Goettemoeller said of Rose, "but he was open and he had some confidence, he knocked it in."

Wellman answered with a floater down the baseline, but the Wildcats couldn't get anything else and the Flyers took a one-point lead into the fourth.

Minster's Johnny Nixon traded baskets with Marion before Ronnebaum put back his own miss to make it 31-30 with 5:07 left. After back-to-back turnovers and a jump ball that went to the Flyers, Ronnebaum inbounded the ball to Knapke on the right wing, snuck behind him as Knapke passed the ball back, and drained a trey behind the screen to stretch the lead to four.

"That (shot) made it more difficult for us, put some more pressure on us to score the basketball," McClurg said. "But I liked where we were up to that point."

Wuebker missed a trey, Peyton Otte grabbed the rebound for the Flyers, and Knapke scored again to put Marion up six.

Wuebker hit a layup, but Tate Hess answered with a pair of free throws and the Wildcats had to start fouling with two minutes left. Nixon hit a free throw, Ronnebaum missed the front end of a one-and-one and Nixon got another layup to cut the lead to 38-35 with 41.7 seconds left.

"Johnny had a shoulder injury from football, he's a baseball kid, and he could've not played," McClurg said. "He could've quit, and he gave us absolutely everything he had this year. Wellman did the same, and so did Fortman. So I was proud of those guys for sticking with it."

As the Flyers went to inbound the ball, the Wildcats flooded the backcourt and Otte got behind the defense, took a long pass, and hit a bunny to stretch the lead back to five and effectively ice the game.

Knapke and Wuebker each scored a game-high 14 points. Nixon added 11 for the Wildcats.

St. Henry 61, New Bremen 55

When Trevor Bergman hit a trey midway through the third, it marked the first lead for the Cardinals since the first quarter, and they wouldn't trail again for nearly eight minutes.

But in a game that never went beyond six points in either direction, New Bremen shot 12-of-28 from the charity stripe, including going 2-for-8 in the third quarter, and couldn't find a shot that would put the Redskins away.

"We have some nights we shoot really well from the line, some nights we don't," New Bremen coach Cory Stephens said. "Tonight we really didn't, and I think we had a couple that went in-and-out. We hit them in the fourth, we didn't hit them in the previous quarters when we needed to."

St. Henry tied the game at 39 on a Bennett Gels layup, at 42 on a Jaden Lange trey, at 44 on Luke Beyke's buzzer-beating layup ending the third, and at 47 on a trey by Seth Heitkamp, with the Cardinals pulling away again each time.

"Our ability to match up and defend, keep them from going on one of those patented Bremen 11-1, 11-2 runs was a big deal," St. Henry coach Eric Rosenbeck said.

Dylan Bambauer hit a free throw to put New Bremen up 48-47 with 6:06 left in the fourth and Evan Bowers drew a foul on the other end, with the officials sending the Redskins to inbound from the baseline as coach Eric Rosenbeck and the St. Henry faithful pleaded for free throws.

Sam Koesters promptly got the inbounds pass and nailed a trey to put the Redskins up 50-48 with 5:43 remaining.

"We'll take the three," Rosenbeck joked.

Nick Alig tied the game with a layup on the other end and the Redskins turned it over, but David Homan's shot bounced out and Bowers got a bucket to put St. Henry up 52-50. After two empty New Bremen possessions, Koesters got to the hoop for a layup to make it a four-point game with just under three minutes to play.

From there, the Redskins shot 7-of-11 from the line to close out the win.

"Ultimately it comes down to senior leadership and guys making plays," Rosenbeck said. "Jaden hit some big threes early to get us going, and Sam hits that big three for us on the wing when we really needed it."

St. Henry opened with a bang, as Lange hit two threes in the first two minutes before Nick Alig answered with one of his own. The Cardinals caught up when Bambauer sank two free throws with 3:09 left in the first to make it 11-10.

St. Henry went up six again at 30-24 when Gels got open on a back cut for a layup with 3:03 left in the first half, but Trevor Bergman hit a three from the left wing 17 seconds later to make it a three-point game. After the Redskins stretched it back to five, Bergman hit another deep three and Bambauer hit two free throws to tie it up at 34 heading into the half.

Lange led St. Henry with a game-high 17 points, followed by Gels and Koesters with 11 apiece. Bergman scored 15 for the Cardinals.