Good time for a win

CELINA - Celina boys basketball coach Jay Imwalle couldn't ask for a better start from his Bulldogs on Tuesday night.

The finish was much sweeter.

The Bulldogs scored the first 13 points of the game and shook off every attempt by Bath to come back to give Celina its first win of the season in a 56-46 Western Buckeye League victory at the Fieldhouse.

Celina (1-11, 1-2 WBL) didn't shoot the best from either the field (35 percent) or the foul line (53 percent), but the Bulldogs dominated the boards (33-20 rebounding advantage against a bigger Wildcat squad and didn't give up meaningless turnovers.

Corbin Murphy's opening three-pointer half a minute into the game began the opening run. Murphy had seven of the first 11 points of the game as Bath was scoreless on missing its first eight shots before Chad Frey finally broke the ice with 2:25 remaining with a three-pointer.

"They got some confidence early. That was huge for them," Imwalle said. "We talked after Saturday's game (an 80-61 loss to Coldwater) that defensively, we had to get better. We did tonight."

Celina led 16-5 at the end of the first quarter and pushed the lead to 18 at 23-5 before Will Clark hit a three-pointer with 5:36 remaining in the half. That trey singled Bath's comeback as the Wildcats outscored the Bulldogs 16-6 the rest of the quarter to pare Celina's lead to 29-24 at the break.

Frey scored a bucket right off the bat in the third quarter to get the Wildcats to within three, but that was all the closer Bath would get as Murphy, who had sat out the majority of the second quarter with two fouls, scored five straight points to put Celina back up by eight at 34-26 with 6:42 to go. After a scoreless spell of nearly two minutes, Brett Schwieterman got the Bulldog lead back into double digits with a bucket.

"Defensively, Bath showed us a variety of defenses and the kids responded," Imwalle said. "A couple of times we were out of control, but we started recognizing defenses and what we wanted to do against them and (then) executed pretty well."

Every attempt by Bath to inch closer was thwarted by a Celina possession resulting in points or a defensive stop that caused Bath to turn it over or miss a shot.

A big key was stopping Bath big man Harrison Gough. The 6-8 senior, who had recently committed to NCAA Division III national power Wittenberg, was held to five points on 2-of-5 shooting.

"Kole, Corbin and Drake (Langenkamp) when he came in did a pretty nice job on him," Imwalle said. "Kole got two over-the-back (personal foul) calls on (Gough) when he boxed out. I told Kole and Corbin that I didn't care if they didn't get the rebound, make sure (Gough) didn't (Gough did finish with nine rebounds)."

While Celina was just 14-of-26 from the foul line in the game, the Bulldogs were 8-of-10 from the charity stripe over the final 3:51 of the game.

"Wished we'd shot from the line a little better, but at least we were getting to the free throw line," Imwalle said.

"Credit to the kids. They deserved it. I'm glad (the win) happened at home."

Schwieterman and Murphy each finished with 13 points. Murlin had nine points and 12 rebounds.

Frey finished with 14 to lead Bath (4-9, 0-3 WBL) and Clark scored 13.

Celina returns to WBL play on Friday with a road trip to the Supreme Court in Ottawa to face state-ranked Ottawa-Glandorf.