Minster girls lead throughout; beat NB
NEW BREMEN — Minster’s Katie McClurg hit a 3-pointer from the top of the key Thursday night in the Wildcats game against New Bremen, giving Minster a 9-3 lead, and the Wildcats never relinquished that lead.
In a game that was close throughout, Minster didn’t let up and grabbed a 47-41 win over its Midwest Athletic Conference foes.
Following McClurg’s three-ball, New Bremen’s Kaylee Freund hit a shot from the right block and Abi Powers later scored on a drive from the left side, making the basket and getting fouled in the process to make it 9-7.
Minster later extended its lead with Ella Mescher scoring two on the left side and later Lyndi Hemmelgarn hit a baseline jumper to make it 15-9, which marked the end of the opening period.
In the second quarter, Morgan Sparks hit two free throws to make it 17-12 and then Alyssa Niemeyer hit a long two from straight on to make it 19-12.
Freund stole the ball and went the length of the floor for a layup to make it 19-14 and would later score on another fastbreak to make it 21-17. The halftime score would be 24-19. In the third quarter, Ella Mescher got the scoring started with two made free throws to make it 26-19, but New Bremen’s Lily Lennartz answered with a three-pointer to cut the lead to three.
On the next possession, Freund stole the ball and raced for a layup to cut the lead to 26-24, but that’s the closest the Cardinals would get the rest of the way.
Lilly Barhorst for Minster scored on a fastbreak layup to make it 30-24 and the Wildcats held a 32-26 heading into the fourth.
Riley Trentman hit a three near the beginning of the quarter to cut it to 34-29, but back-to-back buckets by McClurg stretched Minster’s lead to nine.
Freund proceeded to make two free throws, but on the other end Lilly Barhorst scored down low to make it 40-31.
Once again, Freund would make two free throws the Cardinals next trip down, but Barhorst answered with two of her own free throws on
the other end to make it 42-33.
New Bremen took a timeout with 28.2 seconds left and following the timeout, Freund scored on a putback and was fouled. She hit the free throw to make it 44-38, but the Cardinals wouldn’t get any closer.
Minster’s Barhorst hit two three throws in the waning seconds of the game and New Bremen’s Lennartz drilled another three as time expired to put a cap on the 47-41 final.
Minster coach Mike Wiss
was happy with the win, but felt his team needed to settle down more when the pressure was on.
“I knew it was going to be like this because that’s what New Bremen can do to you,” he said. “I’d like to say we’re athletic in a few spots also but the 6 inches between our ears has to be able to show that calm — show that resolve when pressure’s on. We get wrapped up into the environment of what’s going on in the rectangle.”
He chalked some of the mistakes up to inexperience .
“Some of that is not a whole bunch of varsity experience
returning. The one person that does have varsity experience has four fouls and is sitting on the bench,” said Wiss, referring to Ella Mescher. “One thing we routinely say: There are no mistakes, just learning experiences. I’m going to say, ‘Today, we learned a lot about ourselves. Let’s learn that we made a mistake, recognize it, admit it and let it go. That’s kind of where we have to go.”
For New Bremen, coach Andy Timmerman noted that his team had opportunities, they just couldn’t capitalize consistently.
“It was a tough one. Too many mental lapses on both
ends of the floor. We didn’t take care of the ball as well as we needed to,” said Timmerman. “When we did get stops, we just couldn’t connect on the offensive end. We couldn’t put a couple together to make a run.”
Minster will be back in action on Saturday at home against Fort Loramie and the Cardinals will be at home again facing Delphos Jefferson.
Score by quarters Minster 15 9 8 15
— 47
New Bremen 9 10
7 15 — 41
MINSTER (47)
Katie McClurg 3-1-0-49; Kaycie Albers 1-0-0-0-2; Lyndi Hemmelgarn 1-0-0-02; Morgan Sparks 1-0-4-5-6; Lilly Barhorst 3-0-6-11-12; Ella Mescher 4-0-2-2-10; Anna Larger 1-0-0-0-2; Alyssa Niemeyer 1-0-0-0-2; TOTALS 15-1-14-26-47.
NEW BREMEN (41) Lily Lennartz 1-3-0-0-11; Kaylee Freund 5-0-6-7-16; Riley Trentman 0-1-1-4-4; Abi Powers 2-0-0-2-4; Mallory Messick 1-0-0-0-2; Chloe Bornhorst 1-0-2-2-4. TOTALS 10-4-9-15-41.