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Wildcats thump Tiffin at Elida |
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Thursday, 28 December 2006 |
By ERIC MAKI
Staff Writer
ELIDA — The Minster girls basketball team survived the first round of the Vicki Mauk Holiday Classic at Elida High School Wednesday with a 52-29 victory over the Tiffin Columbian. The Lady Wildcats will now play for the championship at 7:30 p.m. Thursday night.
A strong ‘Cat defense during the first three periods of the game, an offense tightly controlled by Danae Spieles and superior ball handling by Nikki Wente and Jodie Quinter kept Minster ahead as the undisputed champion. The top scorer of the night was Quinter with 19 points, followed by Wente with 13 points, Chrissy Quinter with eight, Spieles and Lauren Ranly with four each, and Kerri Watercutter and Janel Baumer with a deuce each.
“Every quarter you want to outscore them. The first quarter (was) 18-8, second quarter 11-5, (and the) third quarter I thought we came out again and really ran it up quickly, 15-4. I was just happy with the way we attacked. We had different players in trying to feel their way out, so we slowed down a little bit in the fourth quarter. I thought Nikki Wente did some great things early and Jodie Quinter, throughout the game, she scores inside, she scores outside, and she had one of her better games too,” Minster coach Nann Stechschulte said.
The Lady Wildcats came onto the court ready to ravage the Lady Tornadoes with Ranly putting the first two of 18 points in the period on the board with 7:32 remaining in the first period. Tiffin responded back with a two-pointer by Megan Florence, but Minster hit back hard with three deuces in a row by Wente and Jodie Quinter. With the exception of a two-pointer by Jill Stein, the Lady Tornadoes sucked up the remainder of their points from the paint.
“We’ll play our defense every minute,” Stechschulte said. “Sometimes it’s a little ... quicker than other nights, and tonight it was and we were able to capitalize from it. When you score, then you can press, score and press, so that helps us get right back into our press.”
The second period began with an almost instantaneous foul, which Tiffin’s Brittany Peiffer went to the paint for and shot one of two. But the Lady Tornadoes simply could not get a break sending Minster’s Wente to the free throw line twice - between baskets by Spieles, Wente and Jodie Quinter. The Lady ‘Cats managed to add another eleven points to their score to leave the half with a 29-13 lead over Tiffin.
Minster stayed strong coming out of the half, continuing to dominate the ball and the court for the third period, before losing some of their edge in the fourth. Stechschulte put players that don’t get much time on the court in for the last portion of the game and those players showed the entire Lady Wildcats team to be exceptionally competitive, adding 23 points to the ‘Cat tally while only allowing the Lady Tornadoes to take 16 points.
“This is the second game (Jenna Blackburn) is out. People have different roles and some people have to pick up the slack and some of the ball a little bit more because Jenna (Blackburn) did so much of that, but in the long run, when she gets back, I think it’s going to make us a better team,” Stechschulte said.
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Last Updated ( Tuesday, 02 January 2007 )
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