Minster advances to regional semifinal, face Fort Loramie Thursday
WAPAKONETA — For the sixth straight year, Minster is heading to the Division IV regional finals after a convincing 53-33 win against New Knoxville on Saturday night at Wapakoneta High School.
Minster’s defensive pressure was the key to their victory, forcing New Knoxville to shoot 9-for-33 from the field.
“I’m pleased with the fact that we, maybe because of pressure throughout the course of the game, may have forced some of that stuff,” Minster coach Mike Wiss said following the game. “At the end of the game, those possessions are big.”
Wiss added that Minster’s strength of schedule is a big reason why his team is able to have success in such a tough district.
“Without question, the schedule that you play, there’s just not a lot of districts that are like this,” said Wiss. “We’ve all lived it in every sport we play, but hats off to the MAC and everybody that played in it. Somebody’s got to come out of it, and right now we’re fortunate to be that one.”
Minster shot the ball well in the first quarter, going 6-for-12 from the field, and Ivy Wolf scored eight points in
cluding two 3-pointers.
The Wildcats led 14-6 after the first quarter.
Minster picked things up in the second quarter with two threes from Ella Mescher and Janae Hoying and took a 19-6 lead in the opening minutes.
New Knoxville got four in a row with free throws from Carsyn Henschen and Morgan Leffel to make it 19-10.
Going into halftime, Minster led 27-13, again shooting 6-of-12 from the floor.
New Knoxville shot 3-for-18 from the field in the first half.
Five different Wildcats scored in the third quarter and they took a 20-point lead near the end following a made 3-pointer by Corrine Meiring.
In the fourth quarter, Minster took their largest lead of the game in the final minutes when Wolf stole the ball near half court and made the layup for the 53-29 lead.
Wolf finished with a gamehigh 19 points, including three 3-pointers.
“It’s tough to hold Ivy Wolf down. She’s a great player,” said New Knoxville coach Tim Hegemier. “We had some defensive letdowns as far as help defense and switching. They got about three or four easy buckets there. But you got to score more than 33 points. They did a great job on defense. Every time we went up for a shot, they were right in our face.”
Leffel led the Rangers with 13 points in her final game for New Knoxville.
With Leffel as the only senior on the team, the Rangers bring a slew of starters back for next season and Hegemier is optimistic about making another run next year.
“Hopefully the girls learn from this and get a little bit stronger,” he said. “We got four starters back so hopefully we can make it back next year.”
For Minster, the job isn’t done and they get to face a familiar opponent in Fort Loramie on Thursday in the regional semifinals.
The two schools were on track to potentially meet in the state finals last year before the coronavirus pandemic canceled the tournament.
Fort Loramie won the most recent matchup, in a 36-26 win over Minster back on Dec. 12.
“You want to enjoy this and move on, but this has been on the back of their mind,” said Wiss about playing Fort Loramie in the postseason. “This same thing has been on the team down the road’s mind as well for several months.
“We’re here, everybody thought last year it was going to be the state final, and it never happened. I don’t know what this game’s going to bring, but I know that Minster’s going to show up and Minster’s going to try and be Minster. We’ll see what happens. They’re very good, but we’re going to go give them our best shot.”
That game is schedule to tip at 5:30 p.m. on Thursday at Butler High School in Vandalia.