Coldwater gets past Minster

MINSTER - Coldwater rode a 28-point second quarter to a 65-54 victory over Minster in the boys basketball regular season finale Friday night at Wildcat Gymnasium.

Neither team could get an upper hand in a first quarter that featured two ties and three lead changes. Cole McClurg hit a pair of free throws and a layup in the final seconds to give Minster a 12-10 advantage at the end of the opening period.

Coldwater (17-5, 8-1 Midwest Athletic Conference) was coming off back-to back losses last weekend, which included a 60-57 buzzer-beater defeat to Delphos St. John's and a 70-37 loss at Wapakoneta.

"We had a tough game last Friday and played terrible Saturday, so we had a bad taste on our mouth," Coldwater coach Nick Fisher said. "We had a good focus all week in practice and were focused tonight. In that second quarter, we moved the ball real well, got good looks and converted."

The two teams traded baskets early in the second quarter with Minster taking a 19-18 lead on a free throw by Brogan Stephey. But the Cavaliers answered with an 11-2 run featuring 3-pointers from Miles Pottkotter and Owen Kunk.

Baylen Blockberger had 11 of his game-high 24 points in the second quarter, including a layup with two seconds left in the half to give Coldwater a 38-28 advantage at intermission.

The Cavs were 9-of 12 (75%) from the floor in the second quarter and 7-of-10 from the free throw line.

"We had too many defensive breakdowns, and they're good," Minster coach Michael McClurg said. "Blockberger is as advertised. I mean he's good with the basketball and he got to where ever he wanted.

"I don't think we guarded well enough tonight to beat a team like that," he continued. "You have to be really sound defensively, and we were not."

Luke Schwieterman hit his fourth trey of the game and Kunk added a pair of free throws to stretch the Coldwater margin to 50-35 with less than a minute to play in the third quarter.

"I thought it was a combination of things in that second half," Fisher said. "When our defense does what it's capable of doing, it makes the offense a little easier."

Trailing 53-37 early in the fourth quarter, Minster scored nine unanswered points, capped by an old fashioned three-point play from Kole Richard to cut the deficit to seven.

However, Pottkotter answered for the Cavaliers with his third make from behind the arc, and the Wildcats went the next five minutes without scoring. A bucket by Brady Lefeld capped a 10-0 Coldwater run, giving the Cavs a 63-46 lead with 1:47 left in the game.

"That was a big shot from Pottkotter," Fisher said. "We see it all the time in practice. We've seen it throughout the year. He's one of those guys you can't leave open."

"We cut it to seven, and I felt like we had some momentum, then they hit a three from the corner on us, then we struggled to score for a couple possessions," coach McClurg said, "but I think we made a run at them and showed a little bit of fight there in the fourth quarter."

Minster (13-9, 5-4 MAC) was led by Stephey with 13 points. Cole Albers added 12.

Schwieterman backed up Blockberger with 20 points and Kunk paced the winners on the glass with 12 rebounds.

Both Minster and Coldwater took first round byes and will play for sectional titles next Friday.

The Cavs will take on the winner of the Carey- Liberty Benton game in division III action at the Palace.

Minster will host the Marion Local-Waynesfield-Goshen winner in Division IV.

"Our strength of schedule is right up there with the best of them," coach McClurg said. "In our district, our path is Marion, St. Henry, LCC, and New Bremen. It's basically a MAC tournament with LCC included. I think our schedule prepares us well for that, but at the same time there's no easy game, and we have to be ready to go."