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St. Henry's Molly Wendel (14) will look to help her team stay unbeaten in MAC play when the Redskins and Wildcats meet tonight in Minster.
The third full week of Midwest Athletic Conference girls basketball play tonight features an early anticipated matchup between two teams at the top of the standings.
St. Henry, off to a 6-0 start to the season and holding a half-game lead in the MAC at 3-0 due to having the early start with Versailles, travels to Minster to take on a Minster team that's 2-0 in the MAC and 5-1 overall after losing its first game on Saturday to last season's Division IV state champ Fort Loramie in the teams' annual regular season contest.
Nate Uhlenhake's Redskins were not content on winning the program's first-ever conference title last season in a shared circumstance and are looking for an outright title this season. St. Henry has a veteran group that is very balanced in scoring. Molly Wendel is the top scorer at 9.7 points per game, but five overs are averaging between 5.3 and 9.2 points per game. Wendel adds 4.8 rebounds per game with Leah Lefeld close behind at 4.7.
St. Henry does much of its damage in the paint with Lefeld and Wendel shooting over 52%. When fouled, the Redskins are shooting 70.4% from the charity stripe. The Redskins turn the ball over 11.7 times per game, but are averaging 12.3 steals per game with Morgan Baumer leading the team with 2.7 steals per contest.
Minster's Sadie Niemeyer (15) will look to help her team stay unbeaten in MAC play when the Redskins and Wildcats meet tonight in Minster.
Minster, which also shared part of the MAC last season with Versailles and Marion Local also taking slices, have been playing well in the early part of the season while waiting for some injured players to get back to health. Addi Inskeep recently returned to play while Annie Hemmelgarn is still on the injured reserve.
Much like Uhlenhake's Redskins, veteran Wildcats coach Mike Wiss has balance among his team with no player averaging more than 8.8 points per game (Reece Albers), but four other players are averaging between 4.7 and 6.7 points per game as the Wildcat defense is holding teams to 31.3 points per game
The game could factor in the tournament down the road. The OHSAA released its district assignments for the new expanded divisions. Both St. Henry and Minster - as well as Coldwater, Marion Local, New Bremen and Parkway - are in the Division VI Wapakoneta district.
In the other MAC games tonight, Marion Local, the other unbeaten at 6-0 and 2-0, travels to New Knoxville. Parkway hosts Fort Recovery and New Bremen plays host to Versailles.
In the Western Buckeye League, Celina hosts Van Wert while St. Marys travels to Defiance. Unbeaten Ottawa-Glandorf travels to Wapakoneta, WBL co-leader Bath makes the trip to Lappin Gymnasium to face Shawnee, and Elida travels to Kenton.
Two weeks after wrapping up state football titles in dominating fashion, Marion Local and Coldwater get their boys basketball seasons underway this weekend.
The Flyers are jumping into the MAC fire right out of the gate, hosting New Knoxville at the Hangar on Friday in a freshmen-JV-varsity tripleheader starting at 5 p.m., then playing WBL teams Saturday and Monday, hosting St. Marys on Saturday , then heading to the Fieldhouse in Celina to take on the Bulldogs.
Coldwater will open with a non-conference game on Saturday, traveling to Shelby County to face a 5-0 Russia squad that already has wins over MAC squads St. Henry and Minster.
Reigning MAC champion St. John's off to a 5-0 start after winning the conference opener last Friday at Minster, is off as they would have played Coldwater this week. That game will be played Jan. 14 at Arnzen Gymnasium in Delphos.
St. Henry's Austin Zimmerman pulls down a rebound against New Bremen.
St. Henry, which along with St. John's and Versailles won their MAC openers last week, hosts Minster. The Redskins have won two out of the last three after opening 0-2. After winning their opener, the Wildcats have lost two straight.
Versailles plays host to New Bremen. The Tigers feature Jace Watren, who is averaging 20 points per contest this season as his team is 3-0. New Bremen is 3-2 after bouncing back from the loss to St. Henry with a 39-30 win over Fort Loramie.
Parkway makes the trek to Fort Site Fieldhouse to take on Fort Recovery. The Panthers snapped a four-game skid in beating Celina on Tuesday. . The Indians have opened with three straight non-conference games, standing at 0-3.
Defiance, 4-0 out of the gate, travels to St. Marys in Western Buckeye League play. Celina travels to Van Wert to take on the Cougars. Bath hosts Shawnee, Elida welcomes Kenton to the Elida Fieldhouse and Wapakoneta heads to Hermiller Gymnasium - "The Supreme Court" - to take on Ottawa-Glandorf.
The OHSAA released its district and division assignments for the 2024-25 season.
New Knoxville will play in the girls Division VII Elida district. St. Marys will play in Division IV and work out of the Miller City district. Celina is now Division III and will play in the Columbus Grove district.
Fort Recovery is now in the Southwest District for basketball and play in the North Bracket, which could be played at either Versailles or Covington depending on bracketing.
For the boys, Celina will play in Division III and go to the Liberty-Benton district. St. Marys will be in Division IV and will play in the Findlay district.
The Division VI Wapakoneta regional features Coldwater. Marion, New Bremen, Parkway and St. Henry. The Minster and New Knoxville boys will play in Division VII and go to the Lima Senior district.
The Fort Recovery boys will also go to the Division VI Troy district.
Ohio State's College Football Playoff opener at Ohio Stadium on Saturday night has prompted a number of boys teams to move up their start times so fans can get to enjoy the Buckeyes game starting at 8 p.m.
Here are some updated start times for Saturday. Times indicates the start of the junior varsity contest, with varsity following 15 minutes later.
• St. Marys at Marion Local - 12:30 p.m.
• Minster at Houston - 4 p.m.
• Ansonia at Fort Recovery - 4:30 p.m.
• Botkins at Parkway - 4:30 p.m.
• New Bremen at Anna - 5 p.m.
• Coldwater at Russia - 5:15 p.m. (after the 4 p.m. freshmen game)
| MAC | Overall | |
|---|---|---|
| St. Henry | 3-0 | 6-0 |
| Marion Local | 2-0 | 6-0 |
| Minster | 2-0 | 5-1 |
| Parkway | 1-1 | 4-2 |
| Coldwater | 1-1 | 2-4 |
| New Bremen | 1-1 | 2-4 |
| Versailles | 1-2 | 2-4 |
| Fort Recovery | 0-2 | 3-5 |
| New Knoxville | 0-2 | 2-5 |
| St. John's | 0-2 | 0-8 |
Tonight's Games (6 p.m. JV starts unless indicated)
St. Henry at Minster
St. John at Coldwater (6:30 p.m. varsity only)
Marion Local at New Knoxville (2 JV quarters)
Versailles at New Bremen
Fort Recovery at Parkway
| WBL | Overall | |
|---|---|---|
| Ottawa-Glandorf | 2-0 | 5-0 |
| Bath | 2-0 | 2-4 |
| Elida | 2-1 | 5-3 |
| Celina | 2-1 | 2-6 |
| Kenton | 1-1 | 4-2 |
| Wapakoneta | 1-1 | 3-4 |
| St. Marys | 1-2 | 2-6 |
| Defiance | 1-2 | 2-7 |
| Shawnee | 0-2 | 3-5 |
| Van Wert | 0-2 | 1-5 |
Tonight's Games (6 p.m. JV starts)
Van Wert at Celina
St. Marys at Defiance
Bath at Shawnee
Elida at Kenton
Ottawa-Glandorf at Wapakoneta
| MAC | Overall | |
|---|---|---|
| St. John's | 1-0 | 5-0 |
| Versailles | 1-0 | 3-0 |
| St. Henry | 1-0 | 2-3 |
| New Bremen | 0-1 | 3-2 |
| Parkway | 0-1 | 2-4 |
| Minster | 0-1 | 1-2 |
| New Knoxville | 0-0 | 3-1 |
| Fort Recovery | 0-0 | 0-3 |
| Coldwater | 0-0 | 0-0 |
| Marion Local | 0-0 | 0-0 |
Friday's Games (6 p.m. JV starts unless indicated)
Minster at St. Henry
New Knoxville at Marion Local (tripleheader at 5 p.m.)
New Bremen at Versailles
Parkway at Fort Recovery
| WBL | Overall | |
|---|---|---|
| Defiance | 1-0 | 4-0 |
| Shawnee | 1-0 | 5-1 |
| Bath | 1-0 | 3-2 |
| Ottawa-Glandorf | 1-0 | 1-2 |
| Celina | 1-0 | 1-3 |
| St. Marys | 0-1 | 2-3 |
| Wapakoneta | 0-1 | 2-3 |
| Elida | 0-1 | 2-4 |
| Van Wert | 0-1 | 2-4 |
| Kenton | 0-1 | 1-3 |
Friday's Games (6 p.m. JV starts)
Celina at Van Wert
Defiance at St. Marys
Kenton at Elida
Shawnee at Bath
Wapakoneta at Ottawa-Glandorf
