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Celina's Kaiden Werntz (5) tries to get the ball away from Kenton's Dawson Miller.
CELINA - Be it ever so humble, there's no place like home.
After playing away from the Fieldhouse the past four games, losing all four, Celina returned home to face Kenton.
The friendly confines were more than generous as the Bulldogs shot over 60% in the first half and didn't cool down much to pick up the 70-51 win over the Wildcats in Western Buckeye League play.
"It's been awhile," said Celina coach Adam Johns after his squad improved to 4-9 and 3-2 in the WBL. "I joked that with the holiday showcase, the last game we used our own locker room was the Marion game (on Dec. 23). (Coming home) did us a lot of good."
The start of the game had the appearance that it would be a shootout as the teams traded the lead four times in a span of 68 seconds as Celina's Gavin Wicker and Kaiden Werntz and Kenton's Steven Piper and Blaine Bushong all had a hot hand early. Werntz's 3-pointer with 5:45 to play in the first quarter put Celina in front to stay at 9-4. Werntz then scored five more points on back-to-back possessions to make it 14-7. Kenton (1-10, 0-4 WBL) tried to stay close, cutting the margin to 14-11 on a pair of Dawson Miller free throws with 2:58 remaining in the quarter, but Celina went on a 10-0 run to finish the quarter and went in front 24-11.
For the rest of the game, Celina kept building the lead even as Kenton hit some shots to try and stay close but could not get to within single digits the rest of the game.
Celina was 15-of-24 from the field in the first half (62.5%) and 7-of-12 from the 3-point line.
"It's much nicer coming home to your own gym and the ball goes in a couple of times," said Johns. "Next thing you know, it turns into practice for some of these guys."
Celina's Gavin Wicker shoots the ball.
The Bulldogs reached the 20-point lead mark just over 90 seconds into the third quarter on a Wicker trey. Kenton got it as close as 13 points in the fourth quarter, but Celina stopped any hopes of a comeback.
"The one thing this group continues to work on is to close out games," said Johns. "We were much more aggressive down the stretch: getting to the rim, looking for layups, looking to get fouled (Celina was 13-of-17 from the foul line on the evening), those types of things."
The Bulldogs finished the night shooting 24-of-45 (53.3%) from the floor in the contest and 9-of-19 from the 3-point line.
Celina's Caleb Schlater (31) goes up for a shot as Kenton's Lukas Anderson (10) defends during Friday's WBL game at the Fieldhouse.
Wicker continues his hot play this season in finishing with a game-high 24 for Celina. Werntz added 16 points with Braylon Parker coming off the bench to score all 11 of his points in the first half.
Piper led Kenton with 16 points with Bushong adding 13 points and Miller scoring 12.
Celina has the rest of the weekend off and heads to Herr Gymnasium on Tuesday to face Lima Central Catholic. Next up in league play is Elida next Friday at the Fieldhouse in a battle of Bulldogs.
