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New Bremen's Mary Rindler tries to drive between Coldwater's Claire Steinke (23) and Emma May at the Nest on Thursday.
NEW BREMEN - Coldwater struggled to generate any offense against a scrappy New Bremen team that had trouble hanging on to the ball.
The Cavaliers eventually put a run together, but it proved to be too little, too late as the Cardinals hung on for a 39-36 Midwest Athletic Conference girls basketball victory Thursday night at the Nest in New Bremen.
Coldwater's Madison Wendel hit a trey 45 seconds into the game, but the Cavaliers missed their next 13 shots behind the arc before Wendel and Becca Wenning splashed back-to-back 3-pointers with less than three minutes to play to rally back from an eight-point deficit.
"We hit a couple shots there late, but we needed a few more to fall at some point in the game," Coldwater coach Amy Meyer said. "But I can't fault the girls on their effort. They worked really hard. They put a lot of pressure on them, and at the end, we had a shot to at least tie. We just didn't put enough consecutive good possessions together."
Coldwater (4-8, 1-3 MAC) went just 4-of 16 in the first quarter (25%) and never really warmed up, shooting 14-of-49 for the game (28%).
New Bremen (6-6, 2-2 MAC) took its first lead on two of Chloe Homan's six first-quarter points and finished the opening eight minutes with an 11-9 advantage.
The Cavs hit a five-plus minute dry spell in the second quarter. Abbie Burden came off the bench to spark the Cardinals with seven points, including a 3-pointer with 2:55 left in the half to give New Bremen its biggest lead, 20-11.
New Bremen turned the ball over on four of its first five possessions of the second half as the Cavaliers clawed their way back into the game, trailing 20-16 after a steal and layup by Wenning.
"One thing I had complimented the girls on earlier is that we've done a good job of taking care of the ball this season, but that bit us in the butt tonight," said New Bremen coach Andy Timmerman, whose team was guilty of 27 turnovers. "They did a good job defensively with Becca Wenning up top. She does a good job of getting hands on passes, and they just get in the passing lanes very well and make it tough for you to reverse the ball."
"We didn't convert enough of those turnovers into baskets," Meyer countered. "Defensively, I thought we did a lot of things that we talked about doing - game plan, strategy-wise, that's what we came to do and we did it. We just didn't put the ball in the hole enough."
Coldwater's Becca Wenning tries to get a shot off as New Bremen's Chloe Homan goes up to defend.
Wenning was the only Cavalier to hit a field goal in the first 13 minutes of the second half as New Bremen was able to offset some of the turnovers with a solid defensive effort of its own.
"In our last few games our defense had been poor, and that's putting it mildly," Timmerman said. "But we brought it defensively tonight. We were very quick, we were very aggressive, and that's the challenge we pretty much had this whole week in practice."
Wenning hit a shot in the paint to open the fourth quarter that pulled Coldwater within four, 30-26, but New Bremen answered with a bucket by Mia Hirschfeld and free throws from Homan and Michaela Firks to rebuild a 34-26 lead.
Coldwater responded with the 3-pointers by Wendel and Wenning to close the gap to 34-32 with 1:52 left to play, but with 1:41 left, Wenning was whistled for her fifth foul scrambling for a loose ball under the New Bremen basket.
"You don't ever want to sit your point guard down, or your leading scorer at that point in the game, so that was kind of a tough call," Meyer said.
Claire Steinke hit two big buckets down the stretch to pull Coldwater to within one, 37-36, with 48 second to play. After a New Bremen turnover, the Cavs called timeout with 13.9 seconds left and a chance to take the lead, but they turned the ball over on the inbounds pass.
Homan hit two clutch free throw with nine seconds to play, and a desperation trey by Steinke was off the mark at the buzzer.
"This was definitely a team effort," Timmerman added. "Different girls stepped up and hit some shots. We shot free throws better than we have been doing, and when they clogged things up for Chloe, we were able to find some openings."
Homan finished with 11 points and 14 rebounds to lead the Cardinals. Wenning paced the Cavs with 21 points.
New Bremen will participate in the Versailles Classic on Monday and will travel to Marion Local next Thursday. Coldwater hosts Crestview on Tuesday and Fort Recovery on Thursday.
