By BRIAN SMITH
Sports Editor

After scoring 91 points a week ago against Wapakoneta, the Shawnee Indians were on the same trajectory through the first few minutes of Friday night’s Western Buckeye League match-up with the St. Marys boys basketball team.

Things tailed off from there considerably, but the early offensive outburst was plenty enough to keep the Indians breathing down the neck of the Celina Bulldogs in the WBL standings.

Shawnee scored 19 of the first 21 points of the game and held on from there to pick up a 62-49 win over St. Marys at McBroom Gymnasium. The Indians improved to 6-1 in the league, a game behind frontrunning Celina.

Shawnee senior guard Garrick Warthem slashed and shot his way to 18 points to lead all scorers. Along with junior guard Cody Smith, who scored 11 points while battling foul trouble in the second half, Warthem and Smith amped up the defensive pressure early with steals that turned into lay-ups and open jumpers.

Smith scored five of the first eight points of the game and then Warthem made a jumper, a lay-up and a three-pointer to make it 17-2.

By the time Marcus Lowe put in a lay-up, the lead was 19-2.

“I thought our kids came out focused and ready to go,” Shawnee head coach Nick Bertke said. “We hit some big shots  early. We really did well against their zone early. That start was key. This is St. Marys, they aren’t going to give in. They are going to come back at you.”

Shawnee hit 11-of-14 free throws in the first half, while the Riders only attempted one from the charity stripe in the first 16 minutes of the game.

St. Marys crept back into the game late in the second quarter, going on a 12-5 run to end the second quarter and send the teams to the locker rooms with Shawnee on top, 36-23.

“We’ve been in the situation of being down early some this season like against Van Wert,” St. Marys head coach Paul Sadler said. “Our kids understand that it’s a long game and there are chances later in the game. Sometimes you need to put the scoreboard out of your mind and just execute on each end.”

But even when St. Marys would get the lead down to 10 points in the second half, the Indians had the right answer at the right time. Seth Rosenbauer and Lowe both put in baskets to keep the Roughriders from getting the lead into single-digits. Second-chance points were key for Shawnee and back-breaking for the Riders.

“In some aspects we played well, but we still need to check out and rebound better,” Sadler said. “I thought we had a size advantage out there with three guys starting that were over 6-3. But Shawnee got way too many second chances.”

Marcus Lowe grabbed eight rebounds for the Indians. Seth Rosenbauer had seven boards to help the Indians win the battle of the boards narrowly, 20-19.

A late turnover on an over and back with 20 seconds left in the third quarter by St. Marys gave Shawnee back the ball and Cody Smith made the Riders pay with a triple to make it 49-34 to end the third stanza.

St. Marys was led in scoring by a trio of seniors with 11 points apiece.

Along with senior starter Jake Taylor’s 11 points, St. Marys got much of its scoring from off the bench in the personage of Adam Lininger and Tyler Menker.

Lininger and Menker each finished the game with 11 points, a big part of  St. Marys’ bench outscoring Shawnee’s bench 28-7.

“I thought we scored enough points to win the game, but we can’t outscore people right now,” Sadler said.

“We were going to have trouble if Shawnee got into the 60s and they are certainly very capable to doing just that.”

Both coaches were  happy with the roles their benches played. Each were looking for different things.

“We wanted to get some spark scoring-wise off the bench,” Sadler said. “Adam Lininger has really played well since he has been coming off the bench. And Tyler Menker probably played his best game of the year in his first game from off the bench. It’s not about who starts the game on the floor, it’s about who plays best out there.”

Bertke was pleased with the minutes he was able to squeeze out of his reserves with Cody Smith battling foul trouble.

“They’ve been good all year,” Bertke said. “They didn’t score a lot, but we don’t ask them to score a lot.”
Shawnee took care of the ball, turning it over just seven times.

Rosenbauer scored seven points off the bench along with his seven boards.

The Rider JV team won in overtime, 38-35.