KALIDA – Tuesday night the Kalida Wildcats survived a defensive battle in their non-conference affair with visiting Coldwater to earn their first win of the season, a 31-28 triumph.
The host Wildcats jumped out to a 5-0 lead through the opening moments of the first quarter thanks to a triple from Brooke Erhart and a basket by classmate Camille Hovest. Coldwater dented the scoreboard for the first time with 4:53 to cut within three on a basket by junior Claire Steinke and closed out the quarter with a short left handed hook from Riley Rismiller to end the period on top 6-5.
Rismiller, a 6’5 senior headed to play at Dayton was the centerpiece of the Cavaliers scoring in the second stanza as all of her five points either tied the game or pushed Coldwater back into the lead as part of her game high seven first half points.
Working through tight spaces and against aggressive defenses each team found baskets hard to come by and turnovers on full display as each were tagged for eight miscues in the half. Meredith Bockrath split a pair of free throws with 1.9 seconds remaining with the score tied at 15-15 going into the break.
Freshman Malia Romes, a 6’1 post like her Coldwater counterpart Rismiller tied and gave her squad the advantage in the third period as she hit for three of her six points. Tied at 18-18 with under a minute remaining the long ball struck for the second time for the Wildcats as a triple by Andrea Burgei pushed Kalida to a three point lead heading into the fourth.
In similar fashion to their contest against Ottawa Glandorf on Friday night, the Wildcats aggressive nature sent the team to the free throw line for multiple opportunities in the fourth quarter on this night.
Led by senior Livia Recker the hosts connected on 6 of their 12 tosses to help keep the Cavaliers at bay on the scoreboard. Though Coldwater cut to within two early in the opening minutes of the final eight they were unable to get any closer and trailed by six until a last second Becca Wenning three point goal trimmed the final deficit to 31-28 as the horn sounded.
Coldwater (2-1) was led in scoring by Riley Rismiller’s 14 points and will next be in action on Thursday evening as they open Midwest Athletic Conference play at Minster.
Kalida (1-2) saw eight players add their names to the scorebook and were led by Livia Recker who kept her free throw mark perfect on the season and finished with nine points. Up next for the Wildcats is a Saturday afternoon non-conference affair against Elida.
“It wasn’t pretty but it was a win!” exclaimed Kalida head coach Adam Huber. “That’s how we have to play sometimes and when you’re going against a player as tall and talented as Riley Rismiller and you hold her to 14 and her team to 28 I couldn’t be more proud of these girls” finished Huber.
Scoring:
Kalida (31):
Andrea Burgei 3
Camryn Recker 2
Livia Recker 9
Ady Miller 2
Meredith Bockrath 1
Brooke Erhart 3
Camille Hovest 5
Malia Romes 6
FT: 10/19
3PT: 3 (Burgei, L. Recker, Erhart)
TO: 12
Coldwater:
Jenna Leugers 3
Becca Wenning 5
Claire Steinke 6
Riley Rismiller 14
FT: 5/14
3PT: 1 (Wenning)
TO: 12
JV: Kalida 32-11