By RANDY WILKER
EL Sports Correspondent

ST. MARYS — The St. Marys boys basketball team had trouble going against the height of the Elida Bulldogs Friday night in the final regular season game at McBroom Gym. The Riders just couldn’t stay with the Bulldogs in the second half as they defeated the Riders 59-42.

“They are not a typical big team,” Riders head coach Paul Sadler said. “They are just athletic kids with big arms. Tonight they made things extremely difficult for us in the half-court because we were not able to make the next pass easy. They always had to put a lot of arc on it or make a lot of skip passes.”

The Riders got on the board first with a basket off a steal by Dan Roberts with 6:45 left, but the next four minutes belonged to the Bulldogs as they went on a 9-0 run capped off by a triple by Mike Knotts with 2:35 left. Derek Roop broke the drought with a jumper and Jake Taylor added a free throw before Reggie McAdams nailed a trey to make the score 12-5 after eight minutes of play.

“You have to give credit to them,” Sadler said. “They came out in the 2-1-2 which we prepared against, but it is different when you go against guys that are 6-4 and pretty athletic.”

St. Marys got back in the contest in the second quarter. Elida increased the lead to 18-10 with 4:11 left, but the Riders got a jumper Roop and Taylor nailed a trey off a steal to close the score to 18-15 with 2:31 left, but the Bulldogs came back with a trey of their own by McAdams. Each team added points before Taylor nailed another triple and Roberts hit a basket with 55 seconds to close the score to 23-22. Elida came down and responded again with a bomb by Bo Mathias with 42 seconds left to give them a 26-22 halftime lead.

“I was proud of our effort in the second quarter,” Sadler said. “We began to get a few more stops defensively and we started hitting some shots. Jake hit a couple and Roop hit a couple. We were happy to be in that position and then Mathias came down and that three to give them momentum and they carried that on into the beginning of the second half.”

In the third quarter the Riders went cold again from the field missing their first four shots, while the Bulldogs capitalized on a couple Rider turnovers to increase the lead to 33-22 with 4:57 left.

The Riders broke the drought with a basket by Devon Fitzgerald and Taylor added a free throw, but Elida answered with a three by Mathias and a layup by Knotts. Tyler Menker scored on a layup, but Matt Thompson added a three in the final minute for a 41-27 lead after three quarters.

Elida put the game away in the fourth quarter for the 59-42 victory.

The Riders had Derek Roop and Jake Taylor with 10 points each and Bo Mathias led Elida with 17 points.

Four Riders played their final home game Friday for St. Marys. Adam Lininger, Tyler Menker, Jake Taylor and Eric Anderson all played their final regular season game for the Riders.

“We are disappointed that we have not gotten the seniors a last win at home,” Sadler said. “These guys Jake, Tyler, Adam and Eric they have worked for us throughout the year and the off-season. Unfortunately their contributions can’t be measured in wins and losses, but they have had a lot to do with the positive things that have gone on with these guys as a group and we are going to miss them, but we have one more game at least to take care of business with them.”

St. Marys will have a few things that they will need to do if they want to defeat the Bulldogs in the tournament on Wednesday night.

“I think to beat Elida in the tournament we will have to get the score lower,” Sadler said. “We will have to take advantage of more opportunities on offense,” Sadler said. “We can’t play flat footed like we tend to do occasionally. We need to make sure we are cutting on passes and squaring up hard and doing some of the basics that we have been preaching during the year.”

The Riders will face the Bulldogs in the second game on Wednesday in the sectional contest at Lima Senior at approximately 8:00.

ELIDA                                     59
ST. MARYS                            42
 
 Elida                     12   14   15   18 – 59
St. Marys                5   17     5   15 – 42
 
 ELIDA 59
Mathias 6-2-17, Ragin 4-0-9, R. McAdams 3-0-8, A. McAdams 3-2-8, Kraft 3-1-7, Knotts 2-0-5, Thompson 1-0-3, Martz 1-0-2: Totals 23-5-59.
           
ST. MARYS 42
Roop 4-0-10, Taylor 3-2-10, Menker 4-1-9, Kinkley 2-0-4, Roberts 2-0-4, Anderson 1-0-3, Fitzgerald 1-0-2: Totals 17-3-42.

3-Point Goals: ELIDA 8 (Mathias 3, R. McAdams 2, Ragin 1, Knotts 1), SM 5 (Roop 2, Taylor 2, Anderson 1).
Rebounds: ELIDA 22 (Ragin 7), SM 18 (Roop 6, Menker 6).
Team Fouls: ELIDA 5, SM 12.
Technical Fouls: NONE.
Fouled Out; NONE.
Turnovers: ELIDA 14, SM 14.
Halftime Score: ELIDA 26-22.
JV SCORE: SM 50-34.