Delphos St John’s Cameron Elwer pulls up for a baseline jumper Friday night in Kalida, as the Blue Jays battled the Wildcats.
Nate Reynolds | The Lima News
KALIDA – Two games into its boys basketball season, Delphos St. John’s is undefeated. The way the Blue Jays got those two wins couldn’t have been more different.
Last Saturday night, they tipped off their season with a 32-point win over Van Wert, then followed that up with a 60-54 overtime win over Kalida on Friday night.
The biggest lead by either team in Friday night’s game was six points. After a 23-23 tie at halftime, the lead changed hands 11 times in the second half, and the score was tied three times before the Blue Jays prevailed in overtime.
Cameron Elwer scored 26 points and Aaron Moenter had 12 points, hit two huge shots late in the fourth quarter and made the go-ahead shot in overtime.
“It was tough, it was physical and everything was earned,” St. John’s coach Aaron Elwer said.
“When you get two teams battling like that, you’re going to get a closely contested game, and that’s what tonight was. Any time you play with great effort and defend, you give yourself a chance to win and both teams did that tonight,” he said.
Braylon Smith’s 13 points led Kalida (0-2). Logan Kerner scored 12 points, and Jackson Schroeder had 10 points.
St. John’s looked like it might pull away when Cameron Elwer’s 3-pointer put the Blue Jays up 41-36 with six minutes left in the fourth quarter.
But Kalida responded with eight unanswered points to take a 44-41 lead on a 3-pointer by Jacob Siebeneck, a hoop and a free throw by Kerner and a driving bucket by Braylon Smith over the next three minutes.
With Kalida leading 46-43, Aaron Moenter scored the next two buckets to put St. John’s ahead 47-46, Austin Moenter’s free throw made it 48-46 before Smith scored with 13 seconds to play to send it to overtime.
Aaron Moenter hit his second 3-pointer of the game in the first minute of overtime, and St. John’s led the rest of the way.
“That’s what he does. He’s just a gamer,” Cameron Elwer said about Aaron Moenter. “They fought us tooth and nail, and that’s what we want. It’s our first road game, and we made the plays.”
Aaron Moenter said, “It was just a momentum game. We got it back in overtime, and we stuck to it.”
Aaron Elwer said Aaron Moenter’s offensive contributions late in the game “were huge plays.”
“Aaron is a three-year varsity player. He has played in big games and big situations and made big shots in other situations last year. We definitely need him to continue to grow and be a leader for us this year as a senior,” St. John’s coach said.
St. John’s shot 53 percent on field goals (19 of 36) but didn’t hit its first 3-point shot until halfway through the third quarter. Kalida shot 52 percent (22 of 43).
“It’s weird because against Van Wert it felt like we were making everything. It’s a tough environment, our first road game, but we pulled through,” Cameron Elwer said.
Delphos St. John’s 60, Kalida 54, OT
Delphos St. John’s 13 10 13 12 12 – 60
Kalida 12 11 11 14 6 – 54
ST. JOHN’S
Cameron Elwer 26, Austin Moenter 7, Joel Schrader 4, Collin Feathers 4, Aaron Moenter 12, Tyce McClain 1, Grant Ulm 2. Totals: 19-19-60
Three-point goals: Aaron Moenter 2, Cameron Elwer 1
KALIDA
Jacob Siebeneck 8, Jackson Schroeder 10, Carson Remlinger 2, Logan Kerner 12, Braylon Smith 13, Griffin Klausing 4, Parker Vorst 2, Jaxon Hoffman 3. Totals: 22-7-54
Three-point goals: Logan Kerner 2, Jacob Siebeneck 1.
