By GARY R. RASBERRY
grasberry@dailystandard.com
WAPAKONETA — If St. Henry could have shot just 10 percentage
points higher on Tuesday night, its game with Wapakoneta would
have been a lot closer.
Instead, St. Henry was stuck with a field-goal percentage of
just 21.9 percent as Wapak won the battle of the Redskins, 58-41,
at Wapakoneta High School. St. Henry goes into its final two
games of the season at 6-12 as Wapakoneta ends its regular season
at 14-6.
St. Henry had plenty of open looks at the basket on Tuesday,
and plenty of offensive rebounds to attempt second chances,
but the lid stayed shut on both ends of the court for the Mercer
Countians all night long.
“Someone said we shot something like 15 percent (actually
5-of-30 for 16.6 percent) in the first half,” said assistant
coach Gary Clune, filling in for Charlie Maier, who was under
the weather and missed the game. “We had a lot of really
great looks. We gave up some easy baskets early in the game.
We played well other than that.”
Looking at some of the other statistical categories, Clune had
a point. St. Henry pulled down 36 rebounds, eight less than
Wapak’s 44. Of those 36, 21 were on the offensive side
of the ball. The St. Henry defense also caused havoc, forcing
14 turnovers while committing only 11 on the evening.
“They did an excellent job on the boards,” said
Wapak coach Courtney Rogers of St. Henry’s board work.
“You have to give them credit. They dominated the boards.
That’s one of our focuses and they outdid us there.”
The shooting was the culprit, especially with Wapak sinking
a cool 47.9 percent from the floor in the game (23-of-48). Yet
the Redskins rebounded from an 18-5 first-quarter start to play
relatively even the rest of the way.
Wapak, celebrating senior night, had regular starters Lindsey
West and Krissy Koester staying on the bench to start the game
to get five seniors that don’t see much playing time a
start in front of the home crowd.
The seniors lived up to the challenge as 5-2 guard Courtney
Schlenker hit two three-pointers and Haley Reed added a pair
of buckets to get out to a 10-3 lead. When Koester, the team’s
leading scorer, and West came on to the court, the torment continued
as St. Henry managed just one field goal, a three-pointer by
Brenda Hemmelgarn, and a pair of free throws in the first eight
minutes.
“I was real pleased with our seniors tonight,” said
Rogers. “They came out and gave us that big lead early.
That really determined the rest of the game. St. Henry couldn’t
really come back. They made a couple of runs at us and we kept
making the shots.”
After the opening period, the teams stayed relatively even.
St. Henry shot a little better but still only made 14 field
goals in 64 attempts. Clune, though, couldn’t fault St.
Henry’s effort.
“The girls hustled. They’ve done it all year and
continue to do so,” said Clune. “They played pretty
good defense.”
Koester finished with a game-high 13 for Wapak while Schlenker
and Reed added nine each. Danielle Kremer led St. Henry with
12 points.
St. Henry returns to action on Thursday with a road trip to
St. John’s.
The St. Henry junior varsity picked up a big win over Wapak,
winning 43-40 thanks to four Emily Schwieterman free throws
in the final 25 seconds of the game.
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