'Cats' comeback bid falls short

COLDWATER - Aaron Harlamert didn't have a superb shooting night, but he was on the money when it mattered the most.

Josh Nixon and Matthew Trushaw helped Minster rally back from an 18-point second-half deficit to tie the game at 53-all with 2:10 left in the fourth, but Harlamert answered with a three-pointer and the Cavaliers scored the final seven points to hold on for a 60-53 Midwest Athletic Conference victory Friday night at the Palace.

"(Harlamert) was out of practice two days this week. He had a little injury that he was nursing," Coldwater coach Mike Bruns said. "I was concerned that he did look like he was sluggish at times, but he got that little extra bit of energy there towards the end. I felt like he let the offense come to him and he was able to give us some points there."

Trailing 45-29 after three periods, Minster put together a 7-0 run in the first two minutes of the final quarter and Jacob Stechschulte's trey made the score 45-36. Later, Josh Nixon got rolling, scoring seven of his nine points to put his team within striking distance at 48-45. Trushaw scored 12 of his team-high 18 in the fourth, including his game-tying three.
  "We found a couple gaps against their defense," Minster coach Mike Lee explained. "Their defense had been pretty good all night. We found a couple holes. It's like anything else when you get a little confidence. (Trushaw) came in and got a couple big shots to get it back even."

Harlamert, who finished with nine points on 2-of-10 shooting, came down on Coldwater's next possession following Trushaw's shot and knocked down what ended up being the game-winner and then later hit a pair at the charity stripe after a Wildcat turnover.

"When you're a coach and you've been in this business long enough, you never know in the MAC that you have a safe lead," Bruns said. "Players sometimes feel that way, but we've been through it long enough when we go against good programs and good coaches like that, you know they're never going to quit.

"I was concerned, but I was trying to (remind) my kids that something like this is what we've got to overcome," he continued. "When something doesn't go our way, we've got to play well just like when things do go our way. It's a growing experience for our kids. It's a good learning experience. I'm proud how they came back after that."

Coldwater went into halftime with a 32-25 lead, ending the first half the same way as the second half - with a 7-0 run after Minster had tied the score. In the third, Andy Brunet scored four of the first six Coldwater points of the third to put the Cavs back in front double digits. Back-to-back buckets off of turnovers by Malave Bettinger and Ted Fisher upped the home teams' lead to 15 before Derek Thobe stuck a triple to make the score 45-27, the largest advantage of the night.

Thobe finished with a game-high 20 points on 7-of-11 shooting. He scored six in the first quarter and added eight more in the second.

"Derek Thobe's my three-year starter. He runs the team," Bruns said. "He directs the team offensively and defensively. We need him on the court and he's the quarterback for our the team. We need him out there. He needs to play well for us to play well."

Coldwater led by as much as 10 in the second stanza, but Gabe Goodwin scored eight points and Drew Ripploh's offensive rebound and stickback tied the game at 25-apiece. Then the Cavs went on their run and carried they carried that momentum into the third.

"The long and short of it is that it's a league game, you can't bury yourself as much as what we did tonight and put yourself in position," Lee said. "To our kids credit, we bounced back and got some momentum going and ultimately knotted it up in a couple different stretches.

"Then they come down and hit a couple big shots. One was at the top of the key and the other was from the dead corner. Their athleticism gave us problems pretty much the whole night."   

Trushaw added nine rebounds and Goodwin scored 10 points for the Wildcats, who play at St. Marys tonight.

Brunet scored eight points and grabbed seven rebounds. The Cavs host the top-ranked team in Division IV, Tri-Village, tonight.