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Parkway's KJae Stover (5) looks to pass to a teammate while New Bremen's Liviya Whitlatch tries to get back to her feet to defend during Thursday's MAC girls basketball game at the Nest.
NEW BREMEN - It wasn't exactly a free throw clinic, but it was good enough.
Parkway was 9-for-16 at the charity stripe in the fourth quarter, and was able to keep New Bremen at arms length in a 46-37 Midwest Athletic Conference victory Thursday night at the Cardinal Gymnasium.
The Panthers, 12-2 overall and 3-2 in the MAC, led wire-to-wire, built a couple double digit leads, but weren't able to put the Cardinals on ice.
Megan Hughes got Parkway out of the blocks with the game's first five points, before Maria Kramer answered with a trey for New Bremen. The Cards stayed within two until Parkway ended the first quarter on a 7-0 run that included a trey from Abby Williamson and four more points from Hughes.
New Bremen's Maria Kramer shoots the ball over Parkway's Brittyn Bruns.
Brittyn Bruns gave the Panthers a 19-7 lead with a three-point shot to open the second quarter. Kramer and Halle Kuenning combined for nine points to cut the Parkway lead to 24-16 at halftime.
"They never really let us pull away," Parkway coach Dan Williamson said. "The Kramer girl had a great game. It seemed like anytime they needed a big shot, she was there to give it to them."
Hughes started the second half exactly the same way she started the game with a trey and an inside bucket, which put the visitors up 29-16. But New Bremen (5-9, 2-3) finished the third quarter with a 6-2 run to pull to within seven, 35-28.
A Kramer three-pointer early in the fourth got the Cardinals to within four, 36-32, but they would get no closer. Second-shot opportunities allowed the Panthers to score the next six points, setting up a parade to the free throw line to finish out the game.
"I felt like we got into our offense better tonight," New Bremen coach Stephanie Wheeler said. "We clearly got out-rebounded, and giving up those offensive rebounds was a point of contention. Overall, we made a couple runs and kept hanging with them. We just have to keep working at it."
"We'll take a hard-fought MAC win on the road," Williamson said. "And we still feel good about what we did offensively. We put up 46 points. So we feel good about that. Obviously, we can get better at some things. But I thought our defense was really good down the stretch. The last couple minutes, we made them work really hard to get any kind of open shots."
Kramer, just a freshman, finished with a team-high 21 points for the Cardinals. Hughes had a huge night for the winners with 25 points and 12 rebounds.
New Bremen will be back in action next Thursday to take on Marion Local at the Hangar. Parkway hosts Spencerville Saturday for an 11 a.m. tip, and travels to Minster next Thursday.
"We've got a big game on Saturday with Spencerville," Williamson concluded. "They're another tough physical team, so hopefully we can show up and play with the same intensity that we did tonight."
New Bremen's Halle Kuenning (44) is defended by Parkway's Madelyn Stover.
