Defense always travels…St. Henry’s Karlee Buschur pressured Marion Local guard Mya Eckstein during Wednesday’s district tourney action at Wapakoneta. (Press Pros Feature Photos)
Defense ruled for both St. Henry and Minster as the Redskins and the Wildcats got past Marion Local and Parkway, respectively, to advance in the Division VI district tournament.
Wapakoneta, OH – No one will convince the youthful Nate Uhlenhake or the veteran Mike Wiss that MAC tournament wins in the OHSAA district round come easy.
Uhlenhake is relatively new to it. Wiss is not. And yet, regardless of tenure, the stress is the same and the tension never relents.
Minster Bank proudly sponsors the best in area sports coverage on Press Pros Magazine.com.
Rims can shrink in February, and the only thing predictable is…unpredictability!
Publisher Sonny Fulks writes OHSAA and Ohio State sports for Press Pros Magazine.com.
Such was the case in Wednesday night’s district semi-final round when St. Henry and Minster both survived slow, struggling starts offensively to advance to the weekend’s district final round by taking down Marion Local, and Parkway, respectively.
St. Henry survived a 22-16 grind in the first half against a determined defensive effort by Marion Local. And in the second game Minster and Parkway played to a 10-10 tie by halftime before Minster finally broke the game open in the third quarter.
As it turned out, no one really broke anything open! St. Henry eventually outlasted Marion Local 39-32; and Wiss’s Wildcats hung on to best Parkway 31-26.
St. Henry’s Alexis Buschur drives baseline to rim during Wednesday’s 39-32 win over Marion Local.
“I’m proud of the girls,” said Uhlenhake, a half hour after his #2-ranked Redskins (22-1) had won for the 22nd time. “It’s hard to beat any team three times in the same season, let along Marion. They’re a tough team, they’re well-coached, so I’m proud of the girls for the way they came out and battled.
St. Henry, who thrives on pressure defense, turnovers, and transition points, must have thought it was playing a mirror-image of itself as Beth Streib’s Flyers (16-8) came out with the same kind of pressure and intensity. And thanks to a fast start by senior Morgan Baumer (5 points in the quarter), St. Henry managed to lead 10-9 after eight minutes of jab and counter-jab basketball.
Simply put, the rims seemed to get small for Marion, largely due to St. Henry’s defensive effort. The Redskins held Marion to just 7 points and one field goal in the second quarter; while Alexis Buschur and Addy Homan both connected on three-point shots for St. Henry to boost them to a 22-16 halftime lead.
The respective defenses, by both teams, was admirable – intense. St. Henry got its customary turnovers, but Marion was athletic enough – determined enough – to keep Baumer, Buschur, and Karlee Buschur in front of them and away from runout baskets.
Mya Eckstein’s late bucket in the fourth kept Marion’s hopes alive.
The difference was St. Henry’s ability to make just enough timely three-pointers by Baumer, Homan, and Alexis Buschur to keep Marion from any kind of run – big shots at big times, and all in the first half.
And Marion, despite trying, could not match those haymakers from behind the arc. The Flyers ended up with two for the game, and both by Clare Bruns – one in each half.
“We had multiple people step up tonight,” added Uhlenhake. “Multiple people, and I’m proud of them. Great players make great plays. But they made some shots, too (reference to Bruns).”
22-16 at the break, the defense and the pressure continued to mount in the third quarter. Marion held St. Henry to no threes…and just 7 points. St. Henry held Marion to just two buckets and six points, and led 29-22 after three quarters.
The ‘Edge’ proudly sponsors the Midwest Athletic Conference on Press Pros Magazine.com.
St. Henry found a crack to start the third quarter, turning a turnover into a bucket that bought them some momentum for a moment. But Marion was not about to quit. Beth Streib lost her voice, but found some offense in the person of Mya Eckstein, who canned a couple of buckets; and Clare Bruns, who hit the second of her three-pointers for the game.
Eckstein and Bruns accounted for 7 of the Flyers 10 points in the final quarter (along with a trio of free throws), but more importantly they would not let St. Henry run away and hide. They held the Redskins to just two baskets – one by Baumer and one by Karlee Buschur. But forced to foul to save clock, Marion sent St. Henry to the line seven times. They hit six of them, and four by Addy Homan, who finished with five for the game and a team-high 12 points.
St. Henry won 39-32, but a seven-point deficit never seemed so small as timely simply ran out on Streib’s struggling-to-score Flyers.
“Great players make great plays,” Uhlenhake restated, and that’s what Morgan Baumer did [on a key bucket she scored in the fourth when Marion had cut the lead to four points]. We’ve talked about this all year. When adversity strikes you have to have people step up and make those plays. And that’s what we did again tonight.”
Dorsten Contracting proudly supports the best in MAC sports on Press Pros.
Mike Wiss, for all his years (29) and success in both basketball and baseball, could say the same. Tournament wins of any magnitude come hard; and titles comes even harder, especially against teams you’ve already beaten.
When Wildcats and Panthers meet…there was contact and there were fouls in Minster’s 31-25 district tourney win over Parkway.
Such was Parkway, who left Minster back in January stinging from a 44-21 loss, and a game in which Minster’s pressure forced the Panthers into 24 turnovers. To use Nate Uhlenhake’s words, it’s tough to beat a team twice, and even tougher to beat one with a score to settle.
Parkway came out with energy, and a lot of it, pressuring Minster in the same manner that Minster plays. There was contact, and there were fouls – 37 for the game, and 18 on Minster. The first quarter ended with Parkway leading Minster, 5-4.
The second quarter ended with Minster outscoring Parkway for the quarter, but the tied at halftime, 10-10.
“We have to play defense,” said Wiss, afterwards, managing a winner’s grin. “We had to fight through some foul trouble. I think we made more free throws (almost, 12 to 14), and that’s one of our goals. And I think we rebounded OK, and we’ve done a better job in the past two weeks since played Marion Local. Marion Local woke us up a little bit on the glass. And tonight there was a concerted effort not to allow offensive rebounds.”
Precision Strip proudly sponsors the best in area sports and the Ohio State Buckeyes on Press Pros.
But it’s hard to withstand Minster’s pressure for 32 minutes, and Parkway finally began to crack in the third quarter. Minster turned them over, scored in transition, and got a huge boost by three point shooting from Sophia Dirksen, who crowned her team-high 14 points for the game with back-to-backers midway through the quarter.
Minster’s Kali Schmiesing eased the pressure in the third quarter with a big three-point bucket.
Defense-wise, junior forward Megan Hughes would end up scoring 17 of the Panthers’ eventual total of 25 points. Minster held the other four on the floor with her, for 32 minutes, to just 8 points. And Hughes would score 8 of her 17 points from the foul line.
Minster would outscore Parkway 15-5 for the quarter and effectively put a seal on the game, leading 25-15 at the end of three. But Parkway was hardly through.
The only thing predictable about tournament basketball, once again, is its unpredictability. Minster would not score a field goal in the fourth quarter. Forced to foul, Parkway sent the Wildcats to the line eight times, where they converted on six.
In the meantime, Parkway would get buckets from Hughes and guard Brittyn Bruns, and Hughes would hit six consecutive free throws to lead all scorers (17 points), and cut Minster’s ten-point margin to six by game’s end, 31-25.
Parkway’s Megan Hughes hooks for two of her 17 points during the third quarter of Wednesday’s district tourney loss to Minster.
“Hughes and the Bruns girl are two pretty darn nice basketball players,” said Wiss afterwards, when it was comfortable to compliment. “They did a nice job, and games like this you have to match the intensity of the opponent.
“We won the first couple of minutes of the game, then it got really stagnant for a while, and while I don’t like to play not to lose…sometimes you get into that in these kinds of games where you have to run clock because you’ve got two starters sitting with four fouls. And our bench, Charley Wolf and Mattie Eilerman came in and gave us good minutes during that time. When you’re not overly deep on your bench you have to fight though some tough times.”
Parkway’s Hughes led all scorers with 17, Brittyn Bruns and Madelyen Stover had 4 each; while Dirksen had 14 for Minster, Reece Albers had 6, and Kali Schmiesing finished with 5 points.
Minster (19-5) moves on to a date with Riverdale at Lima Senior on Saturday.
And St. Henry advances to play Lincolnview at Wapakoneta, likewise on Saturday.
It’s BYOG, by the way (bring your own grit). The grind will be there, waiting!
Wilson Health/Orthopedics proudly sponsors the best in area sports and the Ohio State Buckeyes on Press Pros.