Wildcats finish strong
MARIA STEIN — Coming into Friday’s Midwest Athletic Conference showdown, Minster held the lead in the conference while Marion Local was looking to gain some ground currently being in third place, but Wildcats clutched up down the stretch to come away with a 50-37 win at the Hanger.
With Minster leading 18-14, the Flyers outscored the Wildcats 13-6 in the second quarter, including a 10-0 run to close the half, that was capped off by an offensive rebound and put back from forward Charles Huelsman before the buzzer to give the Flyers their first lead of the game, 21-20.
Justin Nixon finished with a game high 16 points, adding seven rebounds and two blocks. Bryan Falk added 13 points and senior guard Eric Schmidt had five points, five rebounds and eight assists.
Huelsman had nine of the teams 13 second quarter points. Huelsman led the Flyers 8-6 (3-2 MAC) with 11 pints and six rebounds, Peyton Otte added seven points.
The Wildcats 11-4 (6-0) outscored the Flyers 14-11 to take back the lead.
An Otte baseline drive for a basket with under five minutes to go put the Flyers up 28-24 but the Wildcats responded with a 6-0 run to go up 30-28. After the Wildcats got the ball back and called a timeout, Nixon found a cutting Brady Hoelscher as he was doubled for the easy layup to go up 30-28.
A Hoelscher steal on a Flyers’ inbound resulted in a layup on the other end with just over a minute to go that put the Wildcats up 34-30 but Flyers guard Brady Ronnebaum drove straight into the paint for a layup with under ten seconds to go to cut the Wildcat lead to 34-32 heading into the fourth quarter.
It was a clean quarter for the Wildcats as they outscored the Flyers 16-5, holding the Flyers scoreless until the 2:36 mark while having five different players score.