Wapak Boys Sectional: New Knox out, Minster moves on
By Tim Langevin
It was a two for Tuesday at the boys D-IV Wapakoneta Sectionals. And both games were a doozy. Once again, the tournament trail fashioned a diabolical twist, casting top seed New Knoxville off course. And in a rematch of a regular season blowout loss, Minster redeemed itself in the nightcap. Read all about it….
Spencerville 60 New Knoxville 57 (OT)
Both teams scored on a ton of emotion, but Spencerville stirred up the most points, 60-57, in an overtime cliff hangar against New Knoxville.
It was the second time the Bearcats defeated the Rangers this season. Back on December 30, they won 68-51. Two of New Knoxville’s four losses have come from the kids of the Northwest Conference.
Label it matchup problems. Senior forward Trevor Hudson and junior point guard Eli Bowers were too quick to handle.
Hardeman scored inside, outside, off the dribble, and from the foul line. And when he was done, his stat sheet was stuffed with a game high 23 points, including eight in the crunch time session.
Bowers finished with 10 points, including 6-of-8 free throws in overtime. But it was his no-look feeds to Hardeman that did the most damage.
New Knoxville led 36-31 after three quarters in a non-chalant performance. But it was the final 12 minutes of the game that spectators started popping heart medicine pills. The Bearcats produced an 11-3 run to take a 42-39 advantage with 38.2 seconds left in regulation.
It took 15 minutes to play the final ticks of the clock. Intentional fouls, strategic subbing, floor burns, and timeouts dominated the lack of action.
Cody Horstman stopped the Bearcat run with a spin move and hard dribble-drive to the rack. Spencerville led 42-41 with 26.4 seconds left.
Hardeman and Bowers drained 3-of-4 foul shots and Spencerville led 45-43 with 16.3 ticks left. When Bowers missed his second free throw, Scott Schweiterman grabbed the rebound and fired an outlet pass to Horstman, who full-throttled down the court for the layup with 2.3 seconds left. Game tied 45-45.
The capacity crowd was exhausted, yet ready for some more March time drama.
It didn’t look good for New Knoxville, though, because MAC Player of the Year and D-II Cedarville University signee Marcus Reinke, fouled out with 16.3 seconds left in regulation. The senior guard finished the night with 14 points, eight below his season average.
The Rangers led once 50-49 with 1:52 remaining in the overtime on a Horstman one-handed floater from 10 feet away. Bowers knotted it 50-50 making 1-of-2 foul shots. Sophomore Devon Cook scored on a stickback to give the Bearcats the lead for good 52-50.
Game. Set. Match. Spencerville.
Horstman paced New Knoxville with 17 points, eleven the final five minutes.
The Rangers close out with an 18-4 record.
The Bearcats (15-8) advance to the district finals Friday.
Minster 51 Delphos St. John’s 39
When MAC teams collide, anything can happen. And it did.
Trailing 38-31 after three quarters, Minster went on a fourth quarter rampage, outscoring Delphos 20-1 to claim a 51-39 comeback victory and in the process, settled the score from a 13-point loss in late December.
Minster coach Mike Lee said, “I told the kids keep battling. We battled. That’s tournament basketball. The kids stepped forward in crunch time situations.”
Minster led 3-0 on a Ross Heitkamp long-range smoothie. It was short-lived as Alex Recker answered with a trey from the top of the circle and Curtis Geise nailed a 12-foot pull-up jumper. Heitkamp tied it 5-5 with a baseline drive before the Blue Jays went on a 13-4 run to take an 18-9 lead with 4:40 left in the half.
Minster fought back to knot the score 20-20 at the break. Heitkamp led the charge with six points, Devon Poeppelman added four, and Adam Niemeyer ripped the cords from the deep corner, fresh off the bench.
“We were down by 7-8-9 points several times, but the kids clawed back when the ship started sinking,” said Lee. ” Niemeyer’s three was huge and so was Heitkamp’s performance.”
Delphos continued to attack and built a 38-31 third quarter lead. Geise scored seven points, including a three. Alex Clark bombed back-to-back threes and Recker added the fourth triple of the quarter for the Jays.
The final frame Minster schooled Delphos with offensive and defensive clinics. The Wildcats went to work inside with Poeppelman and Doug Huber, each scoring four points and Niemeyer and Heitkamp took care of business from the outside, each connecting with threes.
Lee said, “We executed much better offensively and battled defensively in the fourth quarter. We worked our interior game which opened up the outside game. We are not an imposing team, but we have enough punch from the interior.”
He added, “We are at our best when we spread the floor and drive off the dribble. We are not so perimeter-oriented as previous years. Nice balance between inside game and outside game.”
Geise, who led Delphos with 11 points overall, scored the lone point in the fourth. Chase Paxson shut him down. The senior point guard only scored two points, but he dished out seven assists, grabbed five rebounds, and kept his team together under adversity.
Heitkamp led all scorers with 23 points, including three threes and 4-of-4 from the foul line. Poeppelman added 12 points, including 6-of-6 free throws and grabbed six boards.
The Wildcats shot 50 percent from the floor, 5-of-10 from three-point-land, and converted 12-of-13 free throws for 92 percent.
Minster improves to 17-5 and face Spencerville in the district finals Friday at 7:00 PM, a team they beat in December 62-53.
Said Lee, “Both teams are entirely different from the first meeting. They just pulled off the huge upset. They will be playing with a lot of confidence Friday.”
And so, who would’ve predicted Minster and Spencerville in the district finals? After all, both teams were less than spectacular last season. Minster was 7-14 and Spencerville 5-16.
And where is Spencerville? Is that a song about a place Jimmy Buffett made famous? “Wasted away again in Spencerville. Searchin’ for my lost shaker of salt.”
Surely, the Bearcat faithful were wasted away in Spencerville last night. And undoubtedly, the Wildcat throng were wasted away in Minsterville. Just kidding.
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