Sweet Revenge

FINDLAY - Celina boys basketball coach Jay Imwalle would have likely gone to the ends of the earth to get a chance to play St. Marys one more time this season.

Tuesday's tournament game between the Grand Lake rivals at Findlay High School was much closer - and the postgame was more enjoyable for the Celina coach.

The Bulldogs shot better than 50 percent from the field and got payback on the Roughriders with a 57-45 win in the Division II tournament on Tuesday night.

Celina (6-17) returns to Findlay on Friday at 6 p.m. in the sectional final. Waiting for them is undefeated Wauseon, the top-ranked team in the state.

St. Marys' 56-47 regular season win over Celina at Murotech Court had left a bad taste in the mouths of Imwalle and his squad.

This time, Celina came out with pressure on the ball from the opening tip, forcing St. Marys into six first-quarter turnovers.

"After watching our first game with them, I felt that had to be one thing that had to be better," said Imwalle. "We did a good job of getting out of their sets and made them do things they weren't comfortable with."

With the pressure doing its job, Celina went to work on offense. With St. Marys working to keep Kole Murlin and Brett Schwieterman in check, that left the door open for Corbin Murphy and Brandon Yenser. Murphy scored six of Celina's 14 first-quarter points and Yenser added five more as the Bulldogs broke a 4-4 tie with a 10-0 run to end the quarter to go up 14-4.

"I think we had good looks (at the basket). They weren't falling in," said St. Marys coach Craig Szymczak, whose squad shot just 29.8 percent from the floor in the contest. "That was the difference. First game we shot lights out against them. We knew we had to go to the basket more. Things just didn't seem to bounce our way."

St. Marys snapped its four-plus minute cold spell early in the second quarter, but Celina maintained control and never let the margin get any closer than eight points before taking a 27-17 halftime lead.

The Roughriders jumped out early in the third quarter with a Braeden Dunlap basket and free throws from Ethan Mielke to cut the Celina lead to 27-21 just 90 seconds into the half. St. Marys had several chances to get closer, but neither they nor Celina could put the ball through the hoop for nearly four minutes. Austin Okeley of Celina broke the drought with a 3-pointer to put Celina back up by nine. St. Marys managed just one point after the early outburst and Celina maintained a double-digit lead at 32-22 after three quarters.

"Third quarter we came out and attacked them. We made stop after stop," Szymczak said. "I thought (if we) could cut it down to three or two, you don't (know) what the fourth quarter (would bring)."

Finally, Celina started to pull away. Kyle Flaute, scoreless through three quarters, scored to start the fourth quarter. Yenser followed with a hoop-and-harm 3-point play to put the Bulldogs up 37-22 before Drew Jacobs stopped the run. St. Marys managed to close to within seven at 47-40 midway through the period, but some open looks as Celina broke the St. Marys full-court press allowed Celina to go back up by double digits.

"We were able to answer back one way or another," Imwalle said about fighting off the Roughriders' comeback tries. "That was good to see."

"We had to scramble and take a lot of chances," Szymczak said. "If we could have cut it to four or three (in the third quarter), we could have played our base defense and try and ground it out that way."

Yenser finished the night with 14 points on 6-of-10 shooting. Murphy added 12 points and seven rebounds and Murlin scored eight of his 10 points in the fourth quarter before fouling out late.

"Brandon made some big plays. Corbin made some big plays," Imwalle said. "The thing we talked about was how we knew (St. Marys) would try and take away Kole and Brett and other people had to step up. Brandon, Corbin and others stepped up. Kaston Eichenauer hit two big 3s against their zone, which was huge."

Dunlap led St. Marys with 14 pints. Ethan Mielke added 11 and Wilker scored 10.