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St. Henry's Keith Siefring (left) and Austin Zimmerman (22) move in to put pressure on Celina's Gavin Wicker during Saturday's boys basketball game at the Fieldhouse.
CELINA - St. Henry took advantage of second-chance opportunities to post a 53-38 victory over Celina on Hall of Fame night Saturday at the Field House.
The Redskins out-rebounded the Bulldogs 30-16, which included a wealth of offensive rebounds that St. Henry was able to convert into points.
"That's kind of their MO," Celina coach Adam Johns said. "They want to play fast and get as many possessions as they can, and if they miss, they want to get every offensive rebound. It's a challenge, and if you don't match that effort it gets magnified, and it did tonight."
Coming off a 74-35 loss to Marion Local Friday, in which the Redskins gave up 31 points in the third quarter, St. Henry coach Eric Rosenbeck was pleased to see his team limit Celina to 38 total points one night later.
"I am really proud of our defensive effort, especially after last night, which wasn't acceptable for a St. Henry basketball team," Rosenbeck said. "For the guys to bounce back, not hang their heads, and not let one loss turn into two, was great to see."
From left, Braden Bilger, Mike Kanney and Jennifer (Howard) Slusser, display their plaques after being inducted into the Celina Athletic Hall of Fame on Saturday.
Longtime Celina business man and school supporter Kevin (Snuffy) Smith received the "Pride of the Bulldogs" award during Saturday's game.
The Redskins benefited from a fast start, jumping out to a 17-7 lead in the first quarter. Of St. Henry's 17 first-half rebounds, eight come on the offensive glass.
"That was a big point of emphasis. Last night we only had two offensive rebounds," Rosenbeck said. "We had just one guy in the lane, sometimes zero guys in the lane, and that's our identity, we have to go get the ball."
The Bulldogs battled back in the second quarter. A pair of free throws by Kaiden Werntz cut the deficit to five, 18-13. But the two teams traded points for much of the period as Celina was unable to string together stops.
"We'd get it to four or five, and then they would come down and hit a three," Adams said. "Then we'd have an empty possession that allowed them to maintain that two or three possession lead."
St. Henry's Brayden Heath goes up for a layup.
A trey by Brayden Heath re-established St. Henry's double digit advantage, 31-21, with 1:38 left in the half. Gavin Wicker would net a pair of free throws for Celina to make the margin eight at the break.
St. Henry took control of the game for good, scoring the first six points of the second half, while holding Celina without a second-half field goal until the 3:14 mark of the third quarter.
The first four points of the second half were driving layups by Jack Huelsman, who came out of the halftime locker room like a man on a mission.
"We keep putting more of a burden on Jack Huelsman. He made some great reads and had some tough finishes," Rosenbeck said. "He had a really good night, not because he made shots. I thought his leadership, his attitude, his body language was top notch, and for us to hit our ceiling, were going to need him to do that every night."
The Bulldogs were unable to recover from the slow second-half start with the 'Skins maintaining a double digit lead the rest of the way.
Celina's Zaden Rolfes (15) puts up a shot during Saturday's game with St. Henry at the Fieldhouse.
"We had five empty possessions to start the half, while they scored on three of their first five possessions and all of those were layups" Johns said. "Their lead went from eight to 14 pretty quick."
Huelsman and Charlie Werling finished with 13 points each for the 7-11 Redskins. Rosenbeck was also pleased with some of the supporting cast.
"Keith Siefring's hustle was outstanding," he said. "And Eli Broering had a monster game. He played his role perfectly. That's what we need. We need guys to hustle and step up."
Falling to 4-13 on the season, Celina was paced by Werntz and Wicker with 14 and 11 points respectively.
The Bulldogs have two tough games this week, traveling to Lima Central Catholic on Tuesday and hosting Ottawa-Glandorf in a Western Buckeye League battle Friday.
St. Henry is at Parkway on Friday for a Midwest Athletic Conference showdown with the Panthers.
