By Brian Smith
Sports Correspondent
LIMA — Minster needed a bridge.
Having a young, standout group of players in the starting line-up is nice and all. But for a vital stretch in the fourth quarter of Saturday’s Division IV district final game at Lima Senior, three of the Minster girls basketball team’s top players were mere foul-laden ornaments sitting on burgundy padded chairs.

No, for this four-minute stretch in the fourth quarter Minster Coach Nann Stechschulte needed her bench to span the early part of the final quarter while holding a lead before she could get her foul-troubled starters back on the floor.
The Wildcat bench gave Stechschulte and Minster all they could have hoped for in a 54-45 Division IV district final win at Lima Senior on Saturday night.
“We wanted to hold back a little longer,” Stechschulte said. “I usually keep them out until 2:30 left in the game. That’s why I was so proud of our bench. The way things were going, the fouls were 9-to-3 and they were shooting free throws.”
Minster held on to its lead, got its frontline players back on the floor, and staved off Marion Local. Minster will now move on to play Pandora-Gilboa in a regional semifinal game on on Thursday night at 8 p.m. at the Elida Fieldhouse.
With Delanie Wolf, Tara Clune and Erica Fullenkamp all in foul trouble in the fourth quarter, Minster turned to senior Kelli Kemper and junior Ellen Gruber.
“Kelli Kemper came in and turned white as a ghost,” Stechschulte said. “But she came in and got a block and a huge rebound for us.”
Then Ellen Gruber finished off a three point play that pushed the lead to seven points at 44-37 with 4:15 left in the game.
Minster junior Maria Dahlinghaus said that the team could feel the momentum shift back in their direction with the bench’s play.
“It’s awesome to see that our bench can do that,” Dahlinghaus said. “I just wanted to go up and hug them for being able to do that. It’s nice to know we have a bench that can step up like that.”
When the bench had given Minster what it needed, Dahlinghaus did her part. She knocked down ten free throws on Saturday night without a miss as part of a 12-point night offensively.
As the clock ran out on the win, Stechschulte , a two-time state championship winning coach, skipped up and down the bench, pumping her fists. When the clock hit zero, the Wildcats rushed out on the court in one big bear hug.
The team that played the brutal schedule this season is now rewarded by being one of two teams in the MAC to keep going.
After shooting 63 percent from the floor in the first half and giving Marion Local all sorts of problems with a hounding defense, Minster goes into the regional with a 10-game winning streak.
“If they play like they did tonight the rest of the tournament, Minster won’t need to rent a room in Columbus,” Marion Local Coach Treva Fortkamp said. “The state will be paying for it.”
Delanie Wolf scored a team-high 14 points for Minster, with all of those points coming in the second and third quarters.
“We brought a lot of intensity tonight,” Wolf said. “I felt like that was the biggest thing tonight. We came out with a bunch of heart and were ready.”
Wolf scored all 14 of her points in the second and third quarters, helping Minster build a 29-20 halftime and a 40-30 lead after three quarters.
“I knew that at some point I was going to have to score some points,” Wolf said. “I don’t know why they all came in the second and third quarters, but I’m glad they did.”
Wolf was one of the key Minster cogs sent to the bench with foul trouble in the second half.
“It was tough to sit on the bench,” Wolf said. “But it was amazing to watch our bench players step up. Kelli Kemper came in and got a huge block and Ellen Gruber got a big three-point play for us.”
Marion Local cut the lead down to four points three times, only to watch Minster respond. It was a frustrating process and loss for the Flyers, who ran through the MAC at 9-0 this season.
“Anybody shoots 63 percent in the first half, to beat them you’re going to have to shoot 64 percent,” Fortkamp said. “They shot it well and  I guess it’s Nann’s turn. Every time we got a score, we couldn’t get over that hump. We got some momentum but every time Minster would hit some shots.”
When asked if it meant even more because her team beat the Flyers, Stechschulte paused and shed a little light into how experience shapes a coach’s outlook.
“You know, early in my career I probably would have said, yes, it does make it mean more,” Stechschulte said. “But now, it’s just great to win the district. You don’t want to have to beat another MAC team, but it’s the way it works. Now maybe we should have one of those super sectionals like they have down in Southwest Ohio and we both could get to regional.”
For now, the only bracket Stechschulte and the Wildcats will be worried about is the one at the Elida Fieldhouse. They’ll play Pandora-Gilboa, a squad that beat Arlington 45-38 in Saturday’s district final at Liberty-Benton.
On the other side of the Elida regional, Pettisville will take on Mount Blanchard Riverdale.
At Lima, Minster led for all but the first two minutes and fifty-seven seconds of the game. Much of the night was spent protecting a lead and the Wildcats’ best players from fouling out of the game.
At one point in the second half, the Wildcats looked to be cracking. The Flyers were in the bonus and were drawing fouls on the offensive end and turnovers on the defensive end.
Minster jumped out to a double-digit lead in the first quarter on the legs of a 14-0 run. The Wildcats used a man-to-man press to create 11 first-half turnovers and feed a high-paced offense that went 12-for-18 from the field and four-for-seven from beyond the arc in the first 16 minutes of the game.
The Wildcats led 15-5 after the first quarter. The advantage puffed to 22-9 with 5:44 left to go in the second quarter when Delanie Wolf drove the lane for a six-foot runner.
Marion Local got the lead back to a manageable level with a run 7-0 run midway through the second quarter. Marion Local freshman Chelsea Winner was a big part of that, knocking down two straight jumpers and getting the Flyers to within 24-18.
Minster got a three-pointer from Sarah Huelsman and another jumper by Wolf to lead 29-20 at the half.
The loss ends the career of standout Katrina Brand, who scored 20 points in her first healthy game back in about a month. After a wrist injury and the flu, the 6-2 senior added nine  rebounds, as well.
“My girls had a great year,” Fortkamp said. “ This is probably the most adversity I’ve had in a year.”
Minster made some changes defensively since the last time the teams played back in December.
“In our first game this season against Marion Local, I was assigned to Chelsea Winner, who is a really good player,” Dahlinghaus said. “But I got assigned to Margaret Wuebker tonight and that was a step up. She’s such a great player.”
Marion Local committed 21 turnovers in the game, with Dahlinghaus playing going step-for-step down the floor with Wuebker every time down the floor and creating havoc.
“Maria does jumpstart us defensively,” Stechschulte said. “We made a couple of changes in our match-ups and I think that worked to our benefit tonight. I felt we shot pretty well in the first half. We forced turnovers. In the second half we held our own.”