Roughriders get out to hot start

COLDWATER - A night after having one of their best offensive showings in several years, St. Marys didn't lose its touch on Saturday.

The Roughriders made their first six shots of the game, four of them three-pointers, and shot 55 percent from the field in the game in beating Coldwater 63-40 at the Palace to improve to 3-2 on the season.  

Derek Jay hit on his first four shots from the three-point line and Quinn Zaerr had two buckets in the first 4 1/2 minutes of the game to burst out to a 14-3 lead on the Cavaliers. The first Roughrider miss came with three minutes left in the first quarter. Josh Young and Jacob Grannon also got into the act to give St. Marys a 22-7 lead after one quarter.

The second quarter only slightly slowed down the Roughrider scoring attack, for they scored just 17 points to take a 39-20 lead into the half. St. Marys was 16-of-27 from the field in the first 16 minutes, including a solid 5-of-9 from the three-point line.

"Great start. Great start," St. Marys coach Dan Hegemier said. "Derek dropped four three-pointers in the first quarter. It was nice.

"But I really liked how we played in the second quarter. We just played. We didn't have to call a lot of plays to get the ball down the floor. We saw the open man (and) boom, (he) laid it in."

Coldwater coach Mike Bruns tipped his hat to the Roughriders.

"They were definitely in good condition, well-coached and up to date on things," Bruns said. "They've got shooters and a good inside-outside combination."

With the game in hand, the pace of the offense slowed down, but St. Marys was able to push the lead to 20 at 50-30 after three quarters. In the fourth quarter St. Marys reached a 31-point lead at 61-30 with just 2:58 left to play. By then, both teams had emptied the benches, allowing the Cavaliers to get the deficit back into the 20s.

"This is a lot better weekend than it was last weekend," said Hegemier, referring to the Roughriders 0-2 effort against St. Henry and New Bremen last weekend.

"I told the kids we had as good a conditioning this weekend than any conditioning I can give them," Bruns said. "We could have folded but kept playing hard. The heart was there, but the legs were not tonight."

Jay finished with 16 points to lead all players. Zaerr added 15 points and Isaac Fitzgerald scored 12.

"Quinny was very active inside," Hegemier said. "Isaac's been in a slump, but I think he knocked himself out of the slump tonight. I really liked our balance scoring."

Aaron Harlamert scored 11 to lead Coldwater. Ted Fisher finished with 10.

St. Marys returns to action Saturday night at Maria Stein against Marion Local. Coldwater heads to Elida on Tuesday to face the Bulldogs before returning home to host the Assets Allocation Associates Holiday Classic Dec. 29 and 30.