Cardinals hold on to beat Wildcats

NEW BREMEN - Both New Bremen coach Adam Dougherty and Minster coach Mike Lee had the same summation of their teams' rivalry game on Friday night: That's Minster vs. New Bremen.

The teams played full-tilt for 32 minutes, but the Cardinals took the lead for good midway through the final period and held the Wildcats at bay to snap a seven-game losing streak with a 55-53 win in the Battle of Route 66 at Cardinal Gymnasium.

Neither team could get more than six points away from the other. The game featured seven ties and 15 lead changes, 11 coming in the first half.

"That's Minster-New Bremen. It's your rival. The night you hope you play your best," Dougherty said.

"We knew it was going to be a battle from start to finish, and it was," Lee said.

The teams were tied at 30-all at the half, but New Bremen started the second half with a blur of points. Free throws from Eric Bowers and baskets from Greg Parker and Brandon Heitkamp put the Cardinals up 36-30 just over two minutes into the half. A hoop-and-harm three-point play by Peter Falk was followed by a Jacob Stechschulte three-pointer to quickly knot the game up. The Cardinals went back up 38-36, only to have Aaron Ernst drill a trey to put the Wildcats in the lead. New Bremen countered with a bucket from Ben Schwieterman and a pair of Heitkamp free throws to make it 42-41 going into the final period.

"The difference early on was we were able to handle (Minster's) pressure. We made mistakes, but we tried to execute against their pressure," Dougherty said. "We didn't let them speed us up as fast as I've seen them speed others up."

"We got pounded on the glass in the second half and afforded them too many opportunities," Lee said. "First half they beat us with dribble penetration. Second half it was playing more ping-pong off the glass. That's the frustration."

The Cardinals (2-11, 2-3 MAC) again tried to break away with an early bucket to make it a three-point game, but the Wildcats (6-6, 2-2 MAC) responded with a bucket from Bryce Schmiesing and a pair of Josh Nixon free throws to put Minster in the lead at 45-44. Stechschulte followed with a three-pointer to put the Wildcats up four at 48-44 with 6:21 left to play.

Methodically, New Bremen answered with a free throw by Bowers and it was followed by back-to-back baskets from Deion Hoehne to give the Cardinals the lead for good at 49-48 with 4:07 left to play.

Minster refused to let the Cardinals pull away, answering every New Bremen attempt to go up by two possessions. With 16.5 seconds left, Tate Myers, playing in just his third game of the season after injuries kept him inactive, hit two free throws to make it 55-50, but Falk got the open trey to fall with 9.2 seconds left to get Minster back to within a bucket. Myers was fouled on the inbounds and went to the line with a chance to ice the game. However, Myers missed both free throws. Nixon pulled down the board and fired a pass to the streaking Schmiesing, who drove the baseline and had a shot in the paint, only to have Myers get enough of a hand on the ball to knock the ball away from the hoop. Falk got the board, but was unable to get a shot off before the buzzer sounded.

"Our kids played with a lot of toughness and heart tonight," Dougherty said. "It's good to be close to healthy again. We've been in games most nights and competed. We make a few mistakes and get down on ourselves. Tonight we made mistakes and just kept playing."

"We did some things right to get back in it in the second half," Lee said. "We were down six, but we turn the ball over 2-3-4 times out of 5-6 possessions. You can't do that in tight basketball games."

Bowers, Parker and Hoehne each had 10 points. Myers added nine points and nine rebounds

Falk scored 12 of his game-high 18 points in the first half. Stechschulte added 10 points.

Both teams are on the road tonight. New Bremen faces another Auglaize County team in Wapakoneta while Minster makes the short trek to Shelby County to face the Anna Rockets.