OTTAWA – Tuesday night’s 50-33 non-conference victory for the Ottawa Glandorf Lady Titans earned head coach Troy Yant his 250th career victory.
Minster started quick from behind the arc to take a 6-4 lead in the early moments of the contest on a pair of deep makes from senior Katie McClurg but found themselves playing from behind nearly just as fast as the Titans scooped up their miscues and turned them into points on the other end.
Fast break buckets from senior Lily Haselman and Carlie Brinkman pushed the Titans into an 8-6 advantage with 1:52 before the quarter stoppage and cued a 7-2 run that included a triple from Kaitlyn Kimmet to take a 15-8 lead into the buzzer.
Early in the second period the Titans continued their swipe and score method to run their lead to 20-8 in the first minute behind baskets from Karsyn Erford and a second triple from Kimmet.
Both Minster makes in the second quarter came from beyond the arc, triples by Brooke Clune and Kaycie Albers to end three plus minute droughts and bring the Wildcats back to a single digit deficit. OG raced into the locker room ahead 24-14 on fast break scores from sisters Emma and Carlie Brinkman to end the half.
“I thought we started with good energy, went inside and got a quick bucket from Katie Kaufman to open the game and got some pressure on them. Credit to Minster as they did enough to hang around and enough threes to keep it close while we were a bit limited in our rotation due to foul trouble” opined Yant on his teams first half performance.
Ottawa Glandorf flipped the script from the first half in the third as they knocked down a trio of shots from beyond the arc from Karsyn Erford, Kaelyn Grothause, and Emma Brinkman. Minster for their part also flipped their first half script as they found baskets inside from Lilly Barhorst and Sadie Niemeyer in the early seconds of the quarter to get within eight.
Katie McClurg’s third and final triple of the game with 3:36 to go in the third cut the Titans lead to 31-23 before an 11-0 run closed out the quarter for the hosts.
Trailing 42-23 to begin the final eight minutes of play the Wildcats continued to connect from outside as they opened on an 8-2 run on a basket by Addi Inskeep and a set of threes from Kaycie Albers but were unable to get any closer thanks to scoring from the Titans.
“We had hoped to come out and set the tone in the third quarter but again they did enough to stay close. Eventually we were able to expand the lead enough to work on some zone defense and get some deeper rotations” explained Yant.
Subs Megan Horstman and Savannah Recker cemented the victory in the final minutes as they knocked down shots in the last 1:21 to provide the final touches of a 50-33 victory that saw Minster’s Kennedy Korte hit with :16 remaining for the final marker of the night.
“We were 7 of 15 from three and 4 of 4 from the free throw line, I was very happy with that but they had a lot more attempts from two than us. Their pressure and our decision making had a lot to do with that stat tonight” said Minster boss Mike Wiss.
Wrapping up the evening Yant remarked “It was nice to see Emma Brinkman and Kaitlyn Kimmet hit some big shots when we needed them. Lily had a solid game on both ends of the floor and we were perfect from the line which was nice. We will need to work to get better but it was nice to get a win after the loss at TCC and then having our next game last week postponed”.
Kaycie Albers and Katie McClurg led the Wildcats (10-9) in scoring with nine points each, all coming off of three point goals. Next up for Minster is a Thursday night MAC contest on the road at Fort Recovery.
Ottawa Glandorf, ranked #5 in the newest polls this week moves to 15-3 and will next be in action on Thursday evening at Shawnee and home on Sunday afternoon against Celina, both WBL contests that can be heard live on WZOQ Radio.
Kaitlyn Kimmet paced the Titan attack with a game high 10 points while teammates Katie Kaufman and Karsyn Erford each tossed in nine.
Scoring:
OG (50):
Karsyn Erford 9
Megan Horstman 2
Lily Haselman 6
Kaelyn Grothause 3
Emma Brinkman 5
Carlie Brinkman 4
Kaitlyn Kimmet 10
Katie Kaufman 9
Savannah Recker 2
FG: 16/31
3PT: 5/9 (Kimmet 2, Erford, Grothause, E. Brinkman)
FT: 5/5
TO: 17
Minster (33):
Katie McClurg 9
Brooke Clune 3
Kaycie Albers 9
Lilly Barhorst 4
Sadie Niemeyer 4
Kennedy Korte 2
Addi Inskeep 2
FG: 4/11
3PT: 7/14
FT: 4/4
TO: 27
JV: OG 57-47 (JV now 18-0)