SPENCERVILLE - Youth against experience.
The experienced Bearcats of Spencerville downed the Jefferson Wildcats 73-46 in a Northwest Conference contest before a packed Closet in Spencerville Friday evening.
“Spencerville’s got an outstanding basketball team,” Jefferson coach Marc Smith commented. “They have a good senior bunch. They have size. In a couple of years, we’ll be in the position that they are now. We have one senior, two juniors, six sophomores and one freshman playing for us.”
With the score knotted at 4, Logan Nourse drilled a 3-ball from downtown Southworth to give the hosts a lead they would not surrender. A fielder by freshman Jordan Jettinghoff pulled the Jeffcats to within 11-6 at 1:50 of the first quarter. Then the Bearcats went on an 8-0 run before Michael Rahrig’s buzzer-beater cut the first-quarter deficit to 11.
After Isaac Bowers hit consecutive 3-point fielders from around Kossuth, Smith called a timeout with 5:51 left in the second quarter. It did not stop the hot shooting from beyond the triple line for Spencerville, however, as Nourse connected from Conant. Jefferson could not get its offense in gear, due mostly to the Bearcat defense.
“The only thing that we do defensively is that we try to not let the other team into their offense,” Spencerville coach Kevin Sensabaugh stated. “We feel we can do that.”
Jefferson went 3:27 without scoring in the second and the hosts took full advantage of the Wildcats’ offensive woes. From Bowers’ first trey to two freebies by Drew Ring, the Bearcats ran off 11 unanswered markers. Jettinghoff stopped the Wildcats’ scoring drought with a goal at the 4:15 mark. But Jarod Ball and Adam Wolfe canned triples for the triple-loving Spencerville quintet, which forced Smith to call another timeout.
“Logan, Isaac and Adam all are excellent 3-point field-goal shooters,” Sensabaugh commented. “I’m happy for our guys.”
A fielder from T.C. Horner, plus a three and a goal by Nourse gave the home team a 30-point advantage at 6:22 of the third period. Spencerville outscored the visitors 10-6 the rest of the stanza.
With both Sensabaugh and Smith substituting freely, Jefferson took the final eight minutes 18-11. Michael Wiltsie paced the Wildcats with six points.
“Michael Wiltsie does our dirty work for us,” Smith offered. “He draws the other team’s best player defensively. He runs the floor well and does the little things for us. He started off slowly offensively but in the second half, he played well.”
Jefferson was paced by Jettinghoff’s 11; however, he was the only Jeffersonian to attain twin-digit status.
“Jordan handled himself very well,” Smith stated. “Matt Gerdeman played very well.”
The Wildcats hit 20-of-42 from the field (47 percent), 1-of-2 from 3-land, and 5-of-12 from the free-throw line (42 percent). They made 24 miscues to the Bearcats’ 13.
“We didn’t quit, back down or give up,” Smith concluded. “Basketball is like baseball - there are a lot of games. We play one ball game at a time. We have another game to play (tonight). We can either feel sorry for ourselves or we can go out and play Ridgedale (tonight). I think we will do the latter. Spencerville will win a lot of games. I’ll go out on a limb and say they will win at least 15 games this year. They are picked as the favorites to win the NWC and I can see why.”
The Wildcats slip to 1-1 (0-1 in the NWC). Jefferson’s freshman will play Ridgemont’s Golden Gophers in Ridgeway at 5 p.m., with the junior varsity and varsity contests to follow.
The Bearcats were paced by Nourse with 19 points. Bowers added 17 markers and Horner 10.
Spencerville hit 26-of-50 from the field (52 percent), 10-of-18 from beyond the arc (58 percent), and 11-of-15 from the free-throw line (73 percent). They outboarded Jefferson 25-24.
“Jefferson has a good club,” Sensabaugh added. “They will play well this year,”
Spencerville improves to 2-0 (1-0 in the NWC) and will journey to Fort Jennings to do battle with the Musketeers this evening in a non-league encounter.