KALIDA – Tuesday night’s non-league battle between Kalida and St. Marys featured many lead changes and runs by both squads and was scratched out by the Wildcats who earned a 29-26 victory at the final buzzer.
Host Kalida fired the opening salvo less then a minute into the contest on a three pointer by senior Amanda Unverferth on their way to a quick 6-0 run to start the game. St. Marys first score came with 2:31 to go in the period on a pair of free throw makes by Karsyn McGlothen and sent the game into the quarter break following a triple by Cora Rable with :23 seconds to go.
Baskets by Rable and Noelle Ruane gave the Roughriders their first lead of the game at 10-9 with 1:13 left in the half and a three pointer from sophomore Ella Jacobs pushed the run to 13-9 St. Marys with :36 remaining before the horn.
Held to just a single point in the second quarter the Wildcats ended their offensive drought at 5:38 to go in the third on a basket by Livia Recker to cut the lead to 15-11 before a St. Marys 5-2 run sent the game to the fourth at 20-13 Roughriders.
Early in the fourth quarter a three pointer by Cora Rable pushed the blue and gold advantage to 23-13, the largest lead of the game for either side before Kalida began to chip away at the deficit.
Scores by junior Camille Hovest and freshman Meridith Bockrath continued to trim the visitors lead to 24-20 with 3:38 left before a three pointer by Brooke Vennekotter made it a 26-25 game with 2:02 on the clock.
Kalida’s first lead since the first quarter came with 26.2 seconds to go on a jumper by Hovest to make it a 27-26 lead into a St. Marys timeout.
Unfortunately for the Roughriders their last two attempts would result in turnovers and successful free throws by Brooke Erhart and Recker to round out the final 29-26 margin.
“I’m really proud of the girls for gutting out this win against a very good St. Marys team. It wasn’t always pretty, especially offensively but we made enough baskets to get the win” remarked Kalida mentor Adam Huber.
St. Marys drops to 1-1 on the season and will next be in action on Thursday, December 2nd when they travel to battle Grand Lake rival Celina while the Wildcats (1-0) will be off until Tuesday, November 30th when they travel to Coldwater for a non-league contest with the Cavaliers.
Scoring:
Kalida (29):
Brooke Vennekotter 8
Amanda Unverferth 3
Livia Recker 7
Meridith Bockrath 3
Brooke Erhart 1
Camille Hovest
St. Marys (26):
Ella Jacobs 3
Reagan Allemeier 3
Kendall Dieringer 3
Noelle Ruane 4
Cora Rable 7
Karsyn McGlothen 6