LIMA — The Jefferson Wildcats traveled over to Lima Central Catholic to have the Wildcats first Northwest Conference boys basketball matchup, the second for the Thunderbirds.

The Thunderbirds came from behind to win 40-38. With Jefferson up 30-27 entering the fourth period, the back-and-forth nature of the game continued as the game came down to the wire when the Thunderbirds received the ball with 2 1/2 minutes remaining in play. Head coach Bob Seggerson called a timeout with 15.8 seconds remaining to decide exactly what to do with the remaining time. After the timeout, the Thunderbirds held the ball for awhile as eventually they moved the ball to Joel Stolly; he drove to the basket to put the Thunderbirds up by two with 1.5 seconds remaining as Jefferson coach Marc Smith called a timeout. Jefferson came out with three lined up on the half-court line as they made the pass to Mike Rahrig, who then passed to Michael Wiltsie; Smith would call another timeout with 0.7 seconds left in play.  The Wildcats could not get a shot off as they were unable to control the ball off the throw-in. “I couldn’t be prouder of our kids tonight as this is the second week in a row we lost in the last five seconds by a shot. We had solid defense again and we did a great job on the boards. We are not a great offensive team as we are more football player-built, which means we try to be more physical,” stated Smith. “We really took a gamble when we decided to hold the ball with 2:30 left but we were able to conquer it,” noted Seggerson. The first half was back and forth after the Thunderbirds got on the board after a 5-0 run by the Wildcats. Jordan Jettinghoff was able to drain a three early in the game to give the Wildcats the lead to start the game off. They wer in the lead the whole first half until LCC’s A.J. Lamoreau swished a two to finally give the Thunderbirds a lead by one at the break. Jefferson lost possession of the ball 12 times in the first half but yet were strong and physical on the boards, getting 29 rebounds on the night. Jefferson looked to be shooting better then they had been as they were shooting 50 percent at halftime as the Thunderbirds only shot 33 percent in the first two periods. Desi Kirkman came off the bench for the Thunderbirds to drain a three and then drive to the hole to add another two points. After Lamoreau’s shot, the score was 21-20, Thunderbirds, at intermission. “We are looking for the key to the ignition and feeling around with different things to get the key to turn. We really miss Sam Stolly’s shot but we need to find other people to step up,” Seggerson added. “In the past years, we have had most of our better players not playing football, but this year we had 95 percent of them not touching a ball for six months. “Kirkman was a solid player for us as he always is and we didn’t start him because he has been struggling with foul trouble so we tried to give him a little more time before getting into trouble. We played smart and are certainly getting better; we just need to rebound more which we knew coming into the season.” The Thunderbirds came out strong the second half, although they got into a lot of foul trouble in the third quarter. Most of the scoring from both teams in the third period were foul shots, with only two field goals being made the whole period. Jefferson’s Josh Miller really stepped up and played a key part in working hard on the boards and getting to the foul line, having a total of six of his 12 points coming from the charity stripe. Matt Hoffman from the Thunderbirds made four shots from the charity stripe for his only four points. At the end of the period, the score was 30-27, with the Wildcats having the lead once again. “Miller takes over with his size and his length. Rahrig showed good control as Matt Gerdeman, Matt Antalis and Bubba Shivley played a solid inside game,” added Smith. “We did what we could do. We need to regroup and get a win over Ottoville (tonight).” The Wildcats are now 2-2 as they face off with Ottoville at The Stage today. The Thunderbirds are 3-3 and 2-0 in the conference as they host Wapak today with a 6 p.m. start time. In JV action, the Thunderbirds also prevailed 59-46. LCC was led in scoring by Jon Stieger who had 17 points; Jefferson was topped by Tyree DeWitt with 11 points.