Wildcats find touch from 3-point range
Minster rallies past Wapak for win
WAPAKONETA — Long-range shooting
helped Minster pull away from Wapakoneta 35-29 in a nonconference game as
both teams began their seasons Friday night.
Katie Mcclurg scored a game-high 18 points — 16 of them in the second half aided by a trio of 3-pointers — as the Wildcats (1-0) rallied from an 11-4 first-quarter deficit to preserve a sixpoint victory over the Redskins (0-1).
“I’m not sure either team was happy with the way it played in the first half because you could see the first-game jitters and
new bodies on the floor that don’t have a lot of varsity experience,” Minster coach Mike Wiss said. “But I was really pleased with the way we responded to that in the start of the third quarter.
“One of our philosophies is that we want to win the first 3 minutes of the third quarter. At one point, the
score was 19-19, but by the end of the third quarter, we were ahead 22-19, which was plus-seven points
in our favor for the period. We got hot
around the arc and we actually made a few free throws in the second half.”
The Redskins led by four points at halftime and clung to a 17-11 advantage in the
third quarter until Mcclurg back-to-back
3-point shots with 4:08 left in the period. A jumper inside the lane from Addy Allen gave WHS a 19-17
cushion before the Wildcats closed the
quarter on a 5-0 run,
capped by Ella Mescher’s 3-point play.
“It was a good opening night because we played quality opponent that is going to win a lot of games
and this game was a physical one. It was a
nice little test,” Wapakoneta coach Rusty Allen said. “Defensively, we did some nice things. I know Mcclurg finished with 18 points but,
overall, we had a nice game on defense. Offensively,
Minster took us out of some things that we like to do. This game gives a
chance to look at the way we played and make adjustments moving forward.”
Wiss agreed that the contest had a physical vibe.
“We have some growing and learning
to do at the varsity level,” Wiss said. “We
have to get production from our post
players because we
didn’t get a lot of that tonight. We tossed up
a lot of oxygen from 5 feet, and some of that is being able to embrace contact. For Game 1, this was a
physical game that wasn’t pretty, and we have to be able to absorb that in the paint.”
Reagan Courter hit a baseline jumper that trimmed the Redskins deficit to 24-21