Balanced 'Skins beat Cavs

COLDWATER - It was a game of hot verses cold at the Palace.

Fifth-ranked St. Henry shot a sizzling 25-of-42 from the field, 11-of-22 from behind the arc and 7-of-8 at the free throw line, opening up a 23-point lead on Coldwater by halftime and rolling to its eighth straight win by a score of 68-48.

"The first half was as strong of an effort as we've had all season," St. Henry coach Eric Rosenbeck said. "The reason was because everyone who touched the floor did a really nice job. Zach Niekamp was fantastic."

Niekamp led the way with a game-high 17 points on 7-of-11 shooting. Six different Redskins hit three-pointers with four making two or more, including Niekamp (2-of-5), Curtis Uhlenhake (3-of-4), Ethan Thieman (2-of-2) and Ryan Bruening (2-of-2).

Then there was Coldwater, which made 17-of-42 shots, 6-of-21 from deep and 8-of-20 at the free throw line.

"I think we average shooting 67 percent (from the foul line)," Coldwater coach Nick Fisher said. "We shoot a lot of free throws in practice and we've been shooting better and better over the last two weeks. The way we shot tonight was obviously disappointing."

The Redskins hit their first 8-of-10 shots from long distance and never let the lead dip below 14 points in the second half.

Tyler Schlarman scored seven points in the first 3 minutes of the game for St. Henry - with two acrobatic finishes at the rim and a trey. He also assisted Bruening's three-ball as the Redskins built a 10-4 lead in a hurry. Schlarman scored all nine of his points in the frame and Uhlenhake added a pair of triples as St. Henry led 24-12 after one.

"We moved the ball really, really well," Rosenbeck said. "With great ball movement, it leads to great looks and guys were knocking them down."

The Redskins went 4-of-4 from long distance in the first 2 minutes of the second quarter - with Niekamp hitting two, Bruening adding his second and Thieman contributing the other. They did miss three in a row from behind the arc at one point in the quarter. However, Uhlenhake returned to the floor after a brief stint on the bench and made another three with a hand in his face to give his team its first 20-point lead midway through the second.

St. Henry finished the first half 9-of-15 from behind the arc.

"I think our kids give great effort all the time, but we just weren't all on the same page," Fisher said. "We weren't communicating and that's something we talked about after the game. We were on different pages, especially defensively, which led to some of those wide-open looks. You can't take anything away from St. Henry, but I thought we had too many defensive breakdowns in the first half."

The Cavs did, however, have some fight left in them.

Sam Broering dialed up two from long distance and made a free throw off a technical foul, leading a 9-2 run to open the third. But the closest Coldwater could get in the second half was 14 points, at 50-36. St. Henry countered with a 9-3 run. Ryan Luttmer added a little extra sizzle to the Backyard Battle win with a sweet no-look feed to Devin Huelskamp for a bucket during the run.

Uhlenhake and Parker Link had nine points apiece, while Thieman and Bruening each added eight.

Derek Albers, Marcus Bruns and Broering had seven points each to lead Coldwater.

St. Henry won its 13th straight over Coldwater, the last Cavalier win coming on Feb. 13, 2009.

Both teams are back in action tonight against foes from the Western Buckeye League. St. Henry hosts Wapakoneta in a battle of Redskins and Coldwater travels to the Cougar Den to face Van Wert.