Wildcats fall in regular season finale
MINSTER — Like another set of black and orange cats, Minster fought but came up a bit short.
The Wildcats fell 42-37 to visiting Fort Recovery in the final regular season game for them on Tuesday night.
The contest had been postponed from 10 days ago because of the winter storm that shut things down for a couple days.
Both offenses were deliberate at times, with Minster holding a onepoint edge at the half. They were even at 26 going to the fourth. The Indians took the lead for good with five minutes to go, then pushed it to six points with three minutes left. Fort Recovery then hit a number of free throws to seal the win.
Minster finishes MAC play at 1-8, and is 5-17 overall. James Niemeyer had 10 points and Devan Wuebker scored nine.
Fort Recovery went 3-5 in league action, and improved to 14-7 overall. Tops for the Indians were Cale Rammel with 15 points and Caleb Evers with 10.
Minster coach Mike McClurg said that the Wildcats had only a few turnovers, but ones at the end were particularly ill-timed. “Our ability to put the ball in the basket is a struggle right now,” he said.
He added that the team stayed composed against Fort Recovery’s zone defense, but just had to work more to get shot opportunities.
Rammel opened the night’s scoring in the first 30 seconds. Brogan Stephey and Wuebker responded with three pointers and the Indians called timeout with 5:17 to go to get reset.
The next couple of minutes were scoreless on both ends until Stephey lined up and hit a jumper with 2:40 to go.
Fort Recovery then got going with a basket by Logan Homan, one by Evers, then a one-handed shot from the side by Homan. That tied it with 45 seconds left, and would prove to be the final scoring of the period.
The deliberate pace was again used, with no scoring for the first 2 1/2 minutes of the second. Owen Jutte hit a jumper for the visitors, with Minster’s Niemeyer driving to the left side and hitting to tie it again.
After a pair of free throws by Fort Recovery, Stephey set up a basket by