KETTERING — Minster’s bus driver may have needed to pull over three times and clean the wipers on the drive to Trent Arena on Monday, but no amount of snow was going to keep the Wildcats from playing in Flyin’ to the Hoop.
And no amount of defensive pressure from Franklin Monroe could stop Minster’s shooting.
Minster outscored the Jets by 17 points in the second quarter to spark a 74-59 win.
Franklin Monroe led 18-16 at the end of the first quarter, but the Wildcats hit the offensive boards well in the second to go along with a 1-2-2 trapping zone defense. With that combo, the Jets were in trouble.
Minster guard Isaac Schmiesing was effective in getting open and knocking down shots, as he scored 12 points in the second to lead a 24-7 scoring advantage.
Minster junior point guard Mike Ketner gave Minster a push in the second half to help secure the win. Ketner scored 21 points, including two 3-pointers.
“I’ve just been waiting for it,” Minster coach Michael McClurg said of Ketner’s performance. “He’s had a couple of those games. He’s steady. He does what we need to him to do. Most people don’t understand the pressure that a good point guard has, just getting the ball up the floor and into the right guys’ hands. Today we needed him to score, and he did that.”
Franklin Monroe had 15 turnovers in the game, which Ketner said contributed to the team’s offense. Minster had six turnovers.
“The key was really defensively we were getting hands on the ball,” Ketner said. “We were getting a lot of steals and getting out in transition.”
Isaac Schmiesing scored 16, with nine of those coming from the 3-point line. Adam Knapke added 11 points along with five assists and two rebounds. Minster shot 29 for 56 (51.8 percent) from the field and hit 10-of-18 3 pointers.
“That’s crazy,” McClurg said of the 3-point shooting percentage. “… We’re shooting it well, which helps. It cures a lot of ills. But we’ve got to get better on the defensive side, that’s all I know.”
Franklin Monroe forward Ethan Conley kept the Jets in the game by by scoring from a variety of ways, slashing to the hoop and pulling up for jumpers. Conley had 12 of Franklin Monroe’s 25 first-half points. He finished with a game-high 35 points along with nine rebounds. He was 11 for 21 from the field.
“Offensively, we played better once the first half of the first quarter got over,” McClurg said. “We’ve got to figure out how to guard better, big-time scorers like (Conley), though.”
Minster is now 7-2 on the season while Franklin Monroe falls to 9-5.
After taking a 40-26 halftime lead, Minster started off the second half just like the first one ended. Schmiesing drilled a 3-pointer to increase the Wildcats’ lead to 55-39, and then 6-foot-9 post player Jarod Schulze slammed a dunk down that drew applause from the large Minster crowd that made the trip to Kettering.
Franklin Monroe’s Zach Cable added nine points to go with nine rebounds. The Jets shot 46 percent from the field.
The winter storm that moved through the area left about an inch of snow before the Wildcats left Minster. McClurg said classes probably would have canceled if school wasn’t already out of session for Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
He said nothing was going to keep Minster from playing in Flyin’ to the Hoop, though.
“We were going whether we had to get in cars or whatever,” McClurg said.
Minster will travel to New Bremen for a Midwest Athletic Conference game on Friday and then to Fort Loramie on Saturday.
Ketner said keeping up hot shooting will be necessary during that stretch.
“It will be really big, because those teams are good,” Ketner said. “We’ve really got to focus on our defense against them.”
Monday’s game was Minster and Franklin Monroe’s first appearance in Flyin’ to the Hoop.
