Cardinals respond to McFeely's challenge

In sports, there are a variety of reasons why a coach calls a timeout - to coach, to teach, to scream, etc.

Saturday afternoon late in the third quarter of his team's game at the Celina Fieldhouse, New Bremen girls basketball coach Dave McFeely called a timeout and gave his team a stern reminder to rebound and play defense and you will win. Don't do those things and you will lose.

McFeely's girls responded as they outscored Celina 23-13 over the last 12 minutes of the game to post a 47-40 nonleague win.

"I can't remember if it was late in the third or early in the fourth quarter, I called a timeout and really challenged them, because Celina had taken over the battle of the boards," said McFeely. "I told them that if they wanted to win the basketball game, they had to rebound and the girls responded and played hard.

"The girls really wanted to win this one," continued McFeely. "This is the third year in a row that we have beaten them and them being a Division I school, it really looks good come tournament time."

While McFeely was pleased with the play of his girls, Celina boss Brian Stetler was looking for answers.

"I wish I could stand here and explain what just happened out here but I can't," said Stetler. "We made key mistakes down the stretch, we had six turnovers in the fourth quarter alone, which is way too many, and we were just not patient at the end of the game when we were in a good position. We knew what we had to do, we just did not do it.

"We did not react to their change in defenses," continued Stetler. "They made some changes earlier in the game and we were able to adjust and then when they made changes later in the game, we were just not able to make that adjustment to their adjustments."

McFeely's comment about winning the boards did indeed prove true as New Bremen out rebounded Celina 24-20 for the game, but more importantly, they out boarded the Dogs 10-6 in the last 12 minutes.

In the first 20 minutes, Celina was able to score 14 of its 27 off offensive rebounds, but in the last 12 minutes, the Bulldogs scored just two second-chance points.

McFeely took his timeout with 3:54 left in the third period and his team trailing 25-24. After the timeout, Celina got a basket from Cenzie Yoder to go up 27-24. New Bremen responded with the last four points of the period on a basket by Jackie Niekamp and a pair of Stacy Timmerman free throws to take a 28-27 lead after three quarters.

The two teams exchanged the lead six times early in the final period, with Celina taking its final lead 34-33 on a basket by Liz Homan off a nice feed from Gina Everman. New Bremen took the lead for good on its next trip as LeAnn Topp hit a three from the top of the key to give her team a 36-34 lead.

After a Celina timeout, New Bremen got a steal from Topp which led to a basket from Taylor Jones to make the score 38-34. New Bremen then closed out the game as it scored three times in the next four possessions over a span of two minutes on baskets from, Jaclyn Dabbelt, Topp and Michelle Griesdorn to take a 44-34 lead and Celina came no closer than eight the rest of the way.

New Bremen hit on 19-of-40 shots for the game, 10-of-19 in the second half. Topp led the way for the Cardinals with 13 points, Griesdorn added 10 and Timmerman added nine points and nine rebounds.

Celina was led by Homan and Yoder each with a game-high 15 points.

Celina returns to action on Thursday opening Western Buckeye League play at home against Defiance. New Bremen heads south on state Route 66 to take on Minster in its Midwest Athletic Conference opener.