Rockets take off past ‘Cats

MINSTER — Hot shooting for the Rockets and 19 turnovers from the Wildcats eliminated their chance of a comeback as the two teams battled back and forth on Saturday night with the Wildcats falling 66-52.

The Wildcats were also missing point guard Schmidt.

The Rockets (5- 1) led 21-11 after the first quarter, with four 3-pointers.

Rocket guard McKane Finkenbine shot 7-of- 15 from deep and had a game-high 32 points, with Isaiah Masteller finishing with 12 points and Ben Kovacs and senior Eric

Jacob Robinson both contributing 10 points.

“We knew (Finkenbine) could shoot it but he hit some really tough shots in that first half,” said Wildcats head Mike McClurg.

For the Wildcats (4-2), senior forward Justin Nixon led the

–––––––––––––––

team early with six first- quarter points. He had 10 points in the first half and 12 rebounds overall but was limited to just four points in the second half.

A 3-pointer from Wildcats senior guard Adam Ketner and a nice dish from Justin to his brother, Johnny Nixon, on the baseline cut the Rockets’ lead to 21- 16 early in the second quarter.

Johnny Nixon finished with 13 points and 10 rebounds, including six offensive rebounds.

But the Rockets answered with a 7- 0 run to go back up 28-16 and had answers for each Wildcats’ basket.

A Justin Nixon bucket followed by a Bryan Falk basket inside made it 39-27, still in favor of the Rockets, before the Rockets added a transition layup with under 15 seconds left in the half to take a 41-27 lead into the locker room.

Falk led the team with 15 points and Ketner added another 10.

“We talked about weathering the storm, do what we do and stick to it and we’ll get right back in the game,” said McClurg on the locker room discussions.

“That’s what happened but we weren’t able to put ourselves into a position to make plays offensively, we kept turning it over.”

“Other than turnovers, I thought we were pretty good offensively. We got good shots and got to the rim in certain spots but we have to take care of it. It wasn’t like they were pressing us; we were just sloppy.”

After a Nixon bucket in transition, the Wildcats called timeout with 3:16 in the third quarter as they cut the Rockets’ lead to 45-36 with a 9- 4 run to open the second half.

Coming out of that timeout, they cut the lead to 45-38 on an offensive rebound and putback from Johnny Nixon but a 7- 0 Rockets’ run in the last couple minutes of the third quarter, with the help of two Wildcats turnovers, put them back up 52-38.

Another offensive rebound and put back from Nixon made it 52- 40 heading into the fourth quarter.

“It was frustrating,” said McClurg on the Rockets 7- 0 run to get back control. “It’s stuff we can control by taking care of it. We go a little bit too fast sometimes.”

The Wildcats got to within five points with an 8-1 run to start the fourth.

After a Rockets’ free throw, Ketner scored back-to-back buckets, Falk added another inside with just over six minutes to go and yet another Nixon offensive rebound and put back made it 53- 48. The Rockets called a timeout clinging to their 53- 48 lead with 5:27 to go.

The two teams traded baskets out of that timeout and at that point there was around four minutes left, with the Rockets spreading the ball and running clock.

After a Wildcats’ timeout with 2:45 left, the Rockets scored inside and forced a turnover immediately after.

The Rockets ran more clock before taking a timeout with 1:42 remaining leading 57- 50.

Out of that timeout, they scored to make it 59-50 and forced yet another turnover.

With under a minute to go, a Falk bucket made it 62-52 but the Rockets would add four more points to come away with the 66-52 win.

“At the end of the day we had too many turnovers at the end (of the game),” said McClurg. “We had our chances, got it down to five points with three minutes to go. I felt like we made a nice run and guarded better in the second half, the law of averages came back (with their shooting) to more normal stuff because it wasn’t normal in the first half. We battled defensively but turned it over too many times.

“We missed Eric a bit tonight. Might’ve helped manage our turnovers, but you know what, good teams find ways to win in situations like that. It is what it is, we’ll get better and learn from it.”