Cards rally past Cats

MINSTER - After falling behind by 11 points late in the third quarter, New Bremen outscored Minster 20-5 down the stretch to post a 46-42 victory over the Wildcats in the Midwest Athletic Conference lid-lifter Friday night at the Minster Middle School Gymnasium.

The Cardinals (4-1, 1-0 MAC) converted three turnovers into layups and held Minster (0-4, 0-1 MAC) to one field goal in the fourth quarter.

"Defensive intensity and holding them to one shot per possession, that was the key," New Bremen coach Cory Stephens said. "In the first three quarters, Minster did a great job of getting offensive rebounds. I think in the fourth quarter we limited those second shot opportunities."

The Cardinals missed their first nine shots from the floor and were held scoreless for the first five minutes of the game. Minster capitalized, jumping out to a 7-0 lead and maintaining a 15-9 advantage after the first eight minutes.

New Bremen got within a point in the second quarter at 17-16 on a trey by Tate Roetgerman, but the Wildcats closed out the half with a 10-3 run, including a 3-pointer at the buzzer by freshman Brogan Stephey, for a 27-19 lead at the break.

Stephey bombed a couple more treys in the third quarter to increase the Minster lead to 33-22. Johnny Nixon hit a bucket in the paint with just over a minute to play in the third to put the Wildcats up 37-26. Minster would then go nearly eight minutes before hitting its next field goal.

New Bremen's Reece Busse and David Homan each hit jumpers to close out the third quarter, and the Cardinals opened the fourth quarter on a 10-1 run.

Nathan Rindler scored off a steal by Homan, followed by a driving layup by Busse to give New Bremen its first lead of the game, 40-38, with 5:11 left to play.

Stephey tied the game back up with a pair of free throws at the 4:48 mark, but New Bremen followed with four unanswered points off turnovers to take a 44-40 lead.

Minster had some opportunities to cut into the deficit, but missed four consecutive free throws. Austin Wellman connected on what proved to be Minster's only field goal of the fourth quarter to reduce New Bremen's lead to 44-42 with 1:05 left.

Next it was the Cardinals' turn to miss free throws. New Bremen was 2-of-6 at the free throw line in the final 35 seconds, but missed shots and two turnovers down the stretch doomed the Wildcats' chances.

Trevor Bergman hit one of two free throws with 12 seconds left to play as New Bremen made it a two-possession game, and then hung on for the 46-42 win.

"I'm not sure if we ran out of gas or we're just not ready to win that game yet," Minster coach Michael McClurg said. "We made some mistakes, didn't hit shots, we missed free throws late. … All things we need to work on.

"We guarded well, and did a great job on defense," McClurg continued. "Ultimately it came down to some other stuff that we're going to have to get better at to win that game."

New Bremen was led by Homan with 11 points, and Busse, who got all 10 of his points in the second half.

"It wasn't our best night offensively, but we tell 'em if you play hard on the defensive end, the ball will eventually go in on the offensive end," Stephens said. "You might not shoot the ball well every night, but you can control what you do on the defensive end with your effort."

As a freshman, Stephey played a key role for the Wildcats, running point and scoring a game-high 24 points with five 3-pointers.

"He's a dude. He wants that moment," said McClurg, who reinforced his confidence in the underclassman. "If we had the chance late, we were going to go to him. He came to play tonight, and we needed every bit of it, but that's going to have to balance out as we go forward."

Minster is back in action next Friday at Delphos St. John's. New Bremen is on the road tonight at Fort Loramie, and again next Friday at St. Henry.