COLDWATER – Saturday afternoon inside “The Palace” the Coldwater Cavaliers started hot and jumped ahead of visiting Celina on their way to a 52-19 victory to keep Celina winless on the season.
Though free throws provided most of the points in a 10-1 opening quarter run, the Cavaliers punched across baskets by posts Madison Wendel and Riley Rismiller on the offensive end while holding Celina to just a Kyilla Billingsley free throw with 20.6 seconds remaining for the only Bulldog marker of the stanza.
Coldwater continued to up their lead in the second quarter thanks to Wendel’s five points and a three point goal from teammates Becca Wenning.
Trailing 25-1 in the waning seconds of the first half, Celina’s Taylor Klingshirn tallied her only points of the game on a pair of successful charity tosses with 16.7 remaining for the visitors only tallies of the period. Senior Courtney May, one of four Cavaliers to be honored before the contest knocked down her teams second three pointer of the half to send the teams into the locker room with a 28-3 Coldwater advantage.
Celina sophomore Kira Dirksen started the scoring for the Bulldogs in the second half as she knocked down a three pointer to cut the lead to 30-6 just under :20 into the half and would account for all eight of her points to lead Celina in scoring on the afternoon as she later added a second make from behind the arc.
Riley Rismiller’s four points against various double and triple teams by Celina led the Cavs in the quarter but it was a deep three by classmate Jenna Leugers that provided the final tally for Coldwater en route to a 39-15 lead at the buzzer of the third that saw Celina outscore their hosts 12-11.
In the final eight minutes the Bulldogs found themselves held to just a pair of baskets by Billingsley and Kemarra Burns with nearly five minutes of play in between while the Cavaliers got makes from four players including Wendel (4), and Rismiller (5) to help round out the 52-19 victory.
On the afternoon the Cavaliers (5-7) shot 19 of 42 from the field and snagged 37 rebounds and were led by Rismiller with a 13 point, 10 rebound performance, and 13 points from Wendel.
Celina finished the game 7 of 37 from the field and just 2 of 14 from behind the arc while snaring 22 rebounds.
Next up for the Bulldogs (0-9) is a home Western Buckeye League contest on Thursday evening, January 14th against league leading Bath. Coldwater returns to action Tuesday, January 12th as they travel to Convoy for a non-league tilt against the Crestview Knights.
Box Score:
Coldwater (52):
Becca Wenning 5
Jenna Leugers 5
Annelise Harlamert 5
Courtney May 3
Madison Wendel 13
Bria Dues 2
Janel Bruns 1
Paige Siefring 3
Riley Rismiller 13
Emma May 2
FG: 19/42
3PT: 3/7 (Wenning, Leugers, May)
FT: 11/17
REB: 37 (Rismiller 10)
TO: 8
Celina (19):
Carley Eichler 2
Maria Lutz 2
Taylor Klingshirn 2
Kemarra Burns 2
Kira Dirksen 8
Kyilla Billingsley 3
FG: 7/37
3PT: 2/14 (Dirksen 2)
FT: 3/8
REB: 22
TO: 16
JV: 50-20 Coldwater