By GARY R. RASBERRY
grasberry@dailystandard.com
ST. HENRY — There wasn’t much either coach had to
say after St. Henry stayed perfect in the Midwest Athletic Conference
with a 70-49 win over Coldwater at a sold-out Redskins Gymnasium.
The Redskins (8-3, 3-0 MAC) used a sizzling first-half shooting
performance to help get things out of hand early. After hitting
nine of their first 12 shots in the first quarter to take a
23-15 lead, the Redskins continued to shoot red hot while racheting
up the defense, forcing seven turnovers in the second quarter
to outscore the Cavs 25-5 and take a 48-20 lead into halftime.
St. Henry shot a staggering 16-of-24 from the field in the first
16 minutes. From the three-point line, where the team struggled
last Saturday against Fort Loramie, the Redskins shot 75 percent
(6-of-8).
“That first half of basketball was easily the best half
we’ve played this season,” said St. Henry coach
Joe Niekamp. “It was really nice to see the kids bounce
back from last weekend. We accomplished a few things. We were
a little more patient tonight.”
Coldwater was on the opposite end. The Cavaliers had plenty
of good looks at the basket, but the rim seemed to have a lid
on it. Coldwater shot just 31.8 percent (7-of-22) in the half.
“We couldn’t get anything to drop, and they did,”
said Cavalier coach Don Vogt. “That was just the way it
was. I don’t know what to say about that.”
“We didn’t give them a lot of good looks,”
said Niekamp. “We made them uncomfortable. When they were
able to penetrate, we had a lot of people in position to help
out.”
St. Henry was able to pass the scoring around throughout the
game. Ross Niekamp started the pace early with some three-pointers
to score all of his 13 points in the first half.
Bryan Post came off the bench to have a perfect half of shooting
from the foul line, going 6-for-6 in scoring 11 points at the
half.
“The kids are playing really unselfishly, making that
extra pass when they need to,” said coach Niekamp. “They
were looking for the open teammate. The ball movement was pretty
good. We had a lot of balance.”
Coldwater found its shooting touch to be slightly warmer in
the second half as the Redskins began to sub more frequently
to give out plenty of playing time. The Cavs’ Craig Wellman,
1-for-4 in the first half, was 4-of-8 in the second half to
finish with 11 points.
“We definitely got away from the things we needed to do
to be successful in the first half and then got back to it in
the second half,” said Vogt. “We had a lot more
success. We just need to come together as a group. We’ve
got a game plan and we need to follow it.”
Post finished with 15 for the Redskins and Craig Koesters added
11 points for Coldwater.
St. Henry stays home again this evening as Tri-Village comes
to town while Coldwater is off until Friday when Marion Local
travels to the Palace.
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