Miller City's Brent Hermiller (33) puts up a three-pointer in the Wildcats loss to Ottawa Hills Tuesday night.
Miller City falls to Ottawa Hills By Charlie Warnimont
Sentinel Sports Editor
BOWLING GREEN - Miller City's faithful kept waiting for a repeat of the WIldcats district final rally against Pandora-Gilboa. This time that rally never materialized.
Before a partisan Miller City crowd at Bowling Green State University's Anderson Arena, the Wildcats fell to Ottawa Hills in the 57-44 in game one of the regional semi-finals. The Green Bears (23-1) advance to the regional finals Friday night (7:30) to play Kalida (22-2). Miller City saw its season end at 20-5.
After taking a brief lead at 26-24 early in the second quarter, Ottawa Hills went on a 7-2 run and never trailed again as they worked their offense to near perfection and used a defense that limited the Wildcats Cody Vennekotter and Rusty Lammers to very few good looks in the game.
"I have a lot of faith in my guys as I was waiting for us to make that push," Miller City coach Tyson McGlaughlin said. "Sometimes you do, sometimes you don't. Tonight the ball didn't bounce our way."
Miller City trailed 24-22 at halftime, but scored the first four points of the third quarter as Cody Vennekotter drove to the basket for two points and Kyle Niese scored on a putback. The Green Bears regained the lead on baskets by JJ Buckey and Eliot Browarsky, then after a basket by Vennekotter tied the game at 28-28, Andrew Jamieson gave Ottawa Hills the lead for good with a three-pointer.
The Green Bears torched the Wildcats in the second half as they shot 67 percent from the floor (12-of-18), while Miller City was a chilly 42 percent (10-of-24).
Ottawa Hills defense came up with the big plays as they forced Miller City into nine second half turnovers and never gave them a lot of good looks at the basket as the Wildcats finished the night shooting 37.8 percent from the field. The Green Bears also held a rebounding advantage and shot 60 percent for the game.
Up six points (38-32) after the third quarter, Ottawa Hills scored the first five points of the fourth quarter to lead by 11. Miller City came back within seven points on a three point play by Kyle Niese, before Ottawa Hills went on a 10-0 run to go up 17 points.
Ottawa Hills placed four players in double digits led by Browarsky with 18 points and seven assists, while Jamieson had 16 points and eight rebounds. Buckey and Kucas Janowicz both had 10 points in the game.
Kyle Niese led Miller City with 21 points and four assists. Brent Hermiller pulled down seven rebounds.
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