KALIDA – In what can only be described as a poetic statement the Kalida Wildcats were led to a win on senior night by a trio of seniors on their way to a 71-44 victory over visiting Spencerville.
In the first quarter Kalida senior Luke Erhart paced his team as he scored 10 of his game high 26 points and helped them jump out to an early lead when he knocked down a pair of three point goals.
Spencerville was led by their sophomore class in the first period as the trio of Josh Henline, Dylan Smith, and Dylan Cook brought the visitors to within a basket on a pair of occasions and to even at 16-16 on a triple from Smith a minute before the first period buzzer sounded.
Brandon Miller gave the Wildcats the first lead for either side in the early moments of the second stanza with a fast break basket and helped to keep Spencerville off of the scoreboard until the 3:55 mark when a Keegan Goecke make cut the lead to 28-18 and snapped a 10-0 Kalida run.
Though the Bearcats found themselves unable to score the basketball in the quarter, the Wildcats had no such issue thanks to free throws from Ayden Warnecke and a five point run by junior Tyson Siefker that helped Kalida to a 35-24 halftime lead.
Early in the second half the Bearcats once again utilized the three ball to keep pace with Kalida as again the duo of Henline and Smith connected on four from beyond the arc to get within 37-34 at the 5:02 mark.
Kalida’s Justin Siebeneck and Luke Erhart dropped through the net a pair of their own from deep to increase the lead back to double digits before Erhart added a basket and a trio of free throws to help put the Wildcats on top 55-41 heading into the final eight minutes.
Though able to hit from deep on a regular basis through the first three quarters, Spencerville found themselves held to just a single make from the field, a three pointer from Dalton Prichard at 5:10 and now trailing 62-44.
Coming off of a Friday night victory in which he accounted for a career high 26 points in a win over LCC, Erhart finished off his second straight 26 point performance in the fourth quarter as he blitzed in a pair of three pointers and a layup to help secure the 27 point senior night victory.
Ayden Warnecke (13), and Brandon Miller (12) joined Erhart in double figures in the game for the Wildcats who improved to 7-0 on the year. Kalida will next be in action on Wednesday evening as they travel to Middle Point to battle Lincolnview.
Josh Henline paced Spencerville with 16, led by five makes from beyond the arc while teammate Dylan Smith scored all 12 of his points on triples in the games odd quarters. Next up for the Bearcats (2-6) is a trip south down Route 66 to St. Marys for a December 29th battle against the Roughriders.
Scoring:
Kalida (71):
Ayden Warnecke 13
Brandon Miller 12
Justin Siebeneck 7
Grant Vorst 4
Tyson Siefker 9
Luke Erhart 26
FT: 12/15
3PT: 7 (Erhart 5, Siebeneck, Siefker)
TO: 8
Spencerville (44):
Josh Henline 16
Dylan Smith 12
Keegan Goecke 5
Dalton Prichard 3
Carter Sudhoff 4
Dylan Cook 2
FT: 4/7
3PT: 10 (Henline 5, Smith 4, Prichard)
TO: 17
JV: 38-18 Kalida