The Daily Standard
Story Archive
St. Henry's Owen Zimmerman (13) puts pressure on Delphos St. John's Cameron Elwer (11) during Friday's MAC boys basketball contest at Redskin Gymnasium. The Blue Jays remained unbeaten in defeating the Redskins 73-50.
ST. HENRY - The first quarter of the Delphos St. John's and St. Henry battle was like watching two boxers slug it out for a full round.
As the game went on, though, the Blue Jays kept hitting and the Redskins were missing.
St. Henry was held scoreless for nearly five minutes in the second quarter, then did likewise in the third quarter, leading the Blue Jays to expand a three-point first quarter lead into a 73-50 win in a sold-out Redskin Gymnasium on Friday night.
The win allows the undefeated Blue Jays (14-0) to take sole possession of first place at 5-0 in the league. St. Henry sees a seven-game winning streak end to go to 8-3 and 3-1 in the MAC.
"Last two weekends on the road, to celebrate with a bunch of guys that are committed and tough-nosed two big wins in our league," said St. John's coach Aaron Elwer, referring to last Friday's win at unbeaten Marion Local.
St. Henry's Brayden Heath (11) is guarded by St. John's Tyce McClain.
St. Henry struck first with a Charlie Werling basket 48 seconds into the game, but Cameron Elwer quickly got the Blue Jays on the board with a 3-pointer to put St. John's in the lead. Brayden Heath got the lead back with 5:56, but Andrew Elwer hit two free throws to return the lead to the Jays 16 seconds later. Jack Huelsman put St. Henry back into the lead with a bucket with 5 1/2 minutes to play in the quarter, then Landon Schwartz made it a three-point lead with 4:45 to play. St. John's battled back with a Brayden Klaus bucket followed by two more Cameron Elwer free throws to give St. John's the lead at 9-8, a lead that would not subside.
The teams continued to battle as St. Henry got back to within a point at 19-18 on a Charlie Werling bucket, but that was the final score for quite a while as Cameron Elwer closed out the first quarter with his 14th and 15th point at the foul line to put the Jays in front 21-18.
"The first quarter was as expected. This place was as electric as any place I've coached in," said coach Elwer. "It was a game between two great teams. … We battled for the first quarter."
There was five minutes where we were stuck on 18," said St. Henry coach Eric Rosenbeck. "To beat a real good team like (St. John's), we needed an 'A' effort. Everyone in the locker room knows that going five minutes without a score is a lot to overcome."
St. Henry's Max Delzeith (21) blocks the layup attempt of St. John's Jackson Wiechart.
St. John's continued to get points as the Redskins struggled with missed shots and turnovers, involuntarily giving up the ball five times in the second quarter. By the time Werling hit a bucket with 3:07 remaining in the first half, the Jays had a 31-20 lead. The bucket sparked the Redskins a bit down the stretch, but St. John's headed into the halftime break leading 39-28.
"We turned it over more than we're used to," said Rosenebeck, whose squad turned it over 11 times to St. John's eight. "Especially in the first half when they took that lead. Over the course of the game we were fine, but that little stretch where we had them with 10 points off turnovers, that's a big deal."
St. John's shot 50% from the floor in the first half (11-of-22) while St. Henry was 12-of-26 (46.2%), but the Jays were 6-of-15 from beyond the arc and made 11 free throws while St. Henry was 3-of-8 on treys and made just one free throw on four tries.
The third quarter was nearly a carbon copy of the second as the Blue Jays scored the first 10 points of the quarter as Cameron Elwer got deuces, treys and free throws. Austin Zimmerman snapped the Redskin chill with 3:05 to play in the quarter to make it 49-30 St. John's.
"I thought in the third quarter we came out, especially defensively, to limit them to seven," said coach Elwer. "Getting those stops with no second-chance opportunities allows us to play at a decent pace and organize offensively."
"We had some real good looks early in the third to try and start (coming back)," said Rosenbeck. "They just didn't go in. That's basketball. It's a make-or-miss game."
After taking a 57-35 lead after the third quarter, St. John's scored the first eight points of the fourth quarter to get the lead up to 30. St. Henry snapped the skid with a 3-pointer by Huelsman and St. Henry nearly got the margin under 20 before both teams cleared the benches to wrap up the game.
Cameron Elwer continued to show why he's the best player in the area. The Furman-bound senior was 10-of-17 from the field and made all 12 of his free throws to finish with 37 points and 10 rebounds. Brother Andrew Elwer added 19 points.
Huelsman, Heath and Werling each finished with 11 points for St. Henry.
Both teams will get early starts to try and beat the snow today. St. Henry hosts Wapakoneta for a freshman/junior varsity/varsity tripleheader starting at 4 p.m. while St. John's makes the short trip south to the Walk-In Closet to take on Spencerville starting at 4 p.m.
