Beckhem Stephey’s two late three-pointers in the fourth quarter gave Minster hope of a district title and a trip to the regional round. (Press Pros Feature Photos)
A gut-wrenching last thirty seconds spelled doom to the Minster Wildcats Saturday night in the Division VII district finals at Van Wert…win eludes them on late turnover, missed free throws.
Van Wert, OH – Minster basketball fans were forced to take a deep breath at the conclusion of Saturday night’s 39-37 loss to Kalida in the Division VI district finals at Van Wert High School. They had no choice.
Leading 37-35 with 30 seconds left in the game, sophomore Beckhem Stephey was fouled out of desperation by Kalida in the backcourt and sent to the foul line with an opportunity to if not ice the game, make it terribly difficult for Kalida to navigate a comeback over the game’s final seconds.
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But on a cold shooting night for the 17-8 Wildcats, Stephey missed both shots, Kalida got the rebound and called a timeout.
Then, with 15 seconds on the game clock, Kalida’s Owen Grime came off a screen at the top of the key with a wide-open look at a three-point shot. Catching and shooting all in one motion, he buried the shot that gave Kalida a 38-37 lead with 9 seconds left in the game.
On the ensuing inbounds play, Minster turned it over and was forced to foul Kalida’s Paul Stechschulte, who had his own chance to ice the game with two free throws. He split the pair, Minster got the rebound, and called a timeout with 5.9 seconds left on the clock.
With little margin for error, the inbounds pass came to Cole McClurg, who caught and shot the basketball in one twisting motion, only to have the ball ricochet off the flange of the rim as the horn sounded. It left Minster fans to take in some air and contend with the unthinkable, and the obvious. That there’s nothing free about free throws!
In a game that never saw a lead by either team bigger than six points, credit a scrapping Minster bunch for its defense giving them a chance in the face of their shooting woes. Because they had chances…lots of chances. After going the first four minutes of the game before scoring on back-to-back three-pointers from opposite corners by Andrew Ketner, Minster never found a confidence for shooting the ball.
Andrew Ketner’s trio of three-point shots in the first half kept the Wildcasts’ in striking range.
“You can’t explain it,” said coach Mike McClurg softly, afterwards. “I didn’t think we played well on Thursday, we shot 30%, and I don’t know if it was much better tonight. When Cole Albers is getting doubled, we’re a team that has to make shots.”
Nerves? The pressure of tournament basketball, with the prospect of their first Final Four appearance since 2005? McClurg couldn’t explain that either, nor did he try. It didn’t matter at that moment. Like anything else in life, it is what it is.
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But in true competitive fashion the ‘Cats would fight through on of their most frustrating shooting nights in memory, with so much on the line. When it was over, they had shot 14 of 49 from the field (28.5%), 7 of 27 from three-point range (26%), and 2 of 8 from the foul line (25%). And yet, with Ketner’s early threes they only trailed by a point, 12-11, at the end of the first quarter. And with a trio of threes in the second quarter by Andrew Wiss, Cole McClurg (his first points of the game), and Ketner, the ‘Cats were actually tied with Kalida at halftime, 23-23.
Cole Albers hooks one around a Kalida defender on a rare occcasion when he didn’t see a double-team.
Throughout the year they had relied on offensive production from their guards because it forced opponents to play 6’8″ center Cole Albers more honestly. If teams had to respect the shot-making of Cole McClurg, Beckhem Stephey, and Andrew Ketner, principally, they couldn’t double and triple-team Albers to deny him point-blank shots at the rim.
And to sum it up, that’s what befell the Wildcats on Saturday. Ketner had 9 points on three-pointers in the first half….McClurg had 3…and Stephey didn’t score, which allowed the Lilliputian-sized frontcourt of Kalida (6’4″ was the biggest) to collapse, smother, and elbow Albers constantly in the paint. With little help, he scored just 4 points for the half.
But they had their chances, because when Albers was getting doubled it left wide-open looks for the Minster backcourt, who one after another turned open looks at three-pointers into long rebounds for Kalida.
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And none more frustrating than the third quarter. Minster barely scored at all, save for a single bucket inside by Albers, and a basket off an offensive rebound by Taylor Fancher. But forced to respond in kind with their own defense, they did, holding Kalida to just 5 points for the period. Minster trailed 28-27 to begin the final quarter.
Every made shot became a big shot…Andrew Wiss’s three-pointer in the first half enabled a halftime tie.
“You can’t ask for much more defensively,” added McClurg, who was struggling with the moment, choosing his words carefully. “We kept them in the 30s. But the game comes down to putting the ball in the bucket, and we did not do that very well. I give Kalida’s defense a little credit, but we missed a lot of easy shots. And ones that we normally make.”
Taking a deep breath, himself, he left it at that.
But to start the fourth quarter, Cole Albers would score inside to give the ‘Cats their first lead of the game. A moment later, Stephey finally coaxed a three-pointer from the wing to go down…their biggest lead of the game, at 34-30. with 5:15 on the clock.
Kalida would come back to take the lead, 35-34, with 3:00 left.
Again Beckhem Stephey answered, with an identical three-pointer from the wing to go up 37-35.
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Now with the lead, Andrew Ketner fouled Kalida’s Gavin Leis on a three-point attempt…only to have Leis miss all three free throw attempts. But Minster couldn’t corral the rebound on the final throw, only to have Kalida give it back with 37 seconds left on a turnover. In desperation, they eventually fouled Beckhem Stephey, who went to the line with the two shot bonus. It felt like it was in the books.
One of those moments….Dad and coach Michael McClurg consoles son Cole following the final shot of Saturday’s 39-37 loss to Kalida in the Division VI district final.
But the first shot went off the back of the rim, and the second caromed off the side. Kalida grabbed the rebound, of course.
With 15 seconds left, Kalida took the timeout to set up a shot to tie or go ahead. Owen Grime was screened away from Cole McClurg, who was just a moment late in getting to Grime by the time he took the shot. And the rest, with the exception of the final Kalida made free throw, is a matter of record for the 2025-’26 Minster season.
Cole Albers scored 10 points in his last game as a Wildcat, Andrew Ketner had 9, Taylor Fancher and Beckhem Stephey each had 6, Cole McClurg and Andrew Wiss had 3 each.
For Kalida, Owen Grime led those Wildcats with 10 points, and frankly, the only shot that anyone, from either team, cares about.
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“It’s been a struggle [the shooting) for us all season,” said McClurg, always the class act in a tough time. “Free throws have been a problem, and when you have basketball kids, which we have, I don’t know the answer. It’s not for a lack of shooting, trust me. I think it’s a mental thing that got in their heads about halfway through the year, and it just stuck.”
“It was my biggest worry coming in. Would we be able to make some shots? Ketner hit those early to keep us in it, but then late we couldn’t get any of them to go. There was a lot of things in the last couple of minutes that could have gone our way and didn’t. And at the end of the day”….he paused, “it’s a pretty emotional deal watching those guys right now.”
The great Pete Maravich once admitted that he missed shots on purpose – short and long – when he practiced, “to make the middle of the rim seem bigger when I had to make one.” And Maravich would miss just over 800 free throws in his college and NBA career.
And in his 13-year NBA career, Larry Bird missed 509 free throws.
“They pretty much felt the same,” Bird once told a reporter. “But some of them just didn’t go in.”
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