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St. Marys' Aiden Meinerding, back, tries to get the ball away from Coldwater's Nolan Mescher during Saturday's game at Grand Lake Health System Court.
ST. MARYS - Coldwater boys basketball coach Will Hoskins had a concern how his team would play Saturday afternoon after a big conference win on Friday.
The Cavaliers shrugged off a sluggish start and built a double digit lead in the second half to pick up their third straight victory in a 51-38 decision over St. Marys at Grand Lake Health System Court.
"These kind of games are a little scary as (a) coach," said Hoskins. "Coming back after a big conference game (a 57-50 win over Versailles), the crowd is hyped and fans are electric, then coming into a Saturday afternoon … you have to create your own energy. We came out a little flat and that was the one thing we wanted to avoid."
The Cavaliers (7-5) and Roughriders (2-10) battled early on, splitting two ties and a lead change in the opening 6 1/2 minutes. St Marys lead 8-5 on a Kasey Gross 3-pointer with 3:27 to play in the quarter before Coldwater came back with free throws from Nolan Gruss and Caleb Schroer that tied the game at 8-all with 1:39 to play. The Cavaliers then scored five big points in the final 47 seconds as Zach Pohlman hit a 3-pointer, then Jack Bruns got a dunk with 27 seconds remaining to give Coldwater a 13-8 lead after eight minutes.
St. Marys' Kasey Gross puts up a shot over Coldwater's Caleb Schroer.
"The dunk really hurt," said St. Marys coach Tim Barga. "We missed and that shouldn't (have). It was more than just that. We've got some guys who really care and some guys that come to every game the same. We have to get those guys to play hard."
Coldwater tried to pull away at the start of the second quarter with an 5-2 run as Nolan Mescher and Pohlman had buckets to make it 18-10. St. Marys slowly battled back, getting within one at 18-17, then at 20-19 on buckets by Blake Dingledine. Landon Knapke hit a free throw with 39.4 seconds remaining in the half to put Coldwater in front 21-19 going into the break.
St. Marys tied the game at 25-all with 5:11 to play in the third quarter on a Clayton Rhodes bucket by Mescher quickly regained the lead seconds later with a bucket. The teams traded buckets as Coldwater stayed two to four points ahead and stayed ahead 32-29 heading into the fourth quarter.
The Cavaliers quickly padded the lead in the opening minutes of the final period as Bruns had a bunny and Josh Schroer hit a 3-pointer to put Coldwater in front 37-27. St. Marys was unable to get closer than seven points the rest of the way.
"I told the guys 'Don't look at St. Marys' record. They're playing better than the record,' " said Hoskins. "Coach Barga is doing a heckuva job."
Bruns finished with 14 points to lead the Cavaliers. Gruss scored eight of his nine points in the second half.
Gross had 12 points for the Roughriders. Dingledine added 11 points.
Coldwater travels to Kenton today for a 5 p.m. start. St. Marys is back in action on Tuesday to host Toledo Woodward.
