OTTAWA – Liberty Benton outscored Ottawa Glandorf on Tuesday night 35-16 in the second half in front of a packed house at the Supreme Court to rally past the Titans for a 47-34 non-league victory.
Trailing 18-12 at the halftime break the visiting Eagles (7-0) turned to the trio of Kylie Recker, Riley Irwin, and Lauren Gerken who combined to outscore their hosts in the second half themselves 27-16.
Held to just a triple that opened up the games scoring in the first half, senior Kylie Recker hit big in the third period as she notched half of her game high 16 points that included a basket and free throw with 4:52 that gave her squad their first advantage since 3-0 in the opening seconds.
Liberty Benton’s Lauren Gerken helped move the advantage on two shots in the third quarter and out to 35-25 with 1:48 left before the buzzer as she worked inside to the basket against the Titan defense.
Ottawa Glandorf who trailed but rallied themselves for an 11-0 run to end the first quarter on a pair of makes from freshman Karsyn Erford found themselves unable to replicate their offensive output in the second half.
The biggest cheers of the evening for either side came with 3:52 remaining in the first period as OG senior Chloee Glenn checked into the game for her first minutes in over a year since suffering a knee injury just before the game against Liberty Benton. Glenn received the biggest Titan ovation of the night with 2:47 left as she took a fast break pass and connected on a layup to push the lead to 8-3 on her first basket since the fourth game of last season against Wapakoneta on December 9th, 2021.
Sophomore Kaelyn Grothause pushed OG back ahead by a basket on back to back scores in the third but saw just two more makes from the field fall through the hoop as the visiting Eagles ran their advantage to 35-27 heading into the fourth.
Three point goals by Kylie Recker and the first of the season from Penn State volleyball signee Karis Willow kept the Liberty Benton advantage near a double digit margin that the Titans were never able to cut deep into in the final five minutes of the contest as they were held to seven points in the same span.
OG committed 19 turnovers on the evening while being held to 1 of 11 from behind the arc and 14 of 32 from inside.
Liberty Benton remains unbeaten on the season and will next be in action on Thursday when they travel to Arlington for a Blanchard Valley Conference clash. Kylie Recker’s game high 16 paced the Eagle attack and was aided by 11 from Riley Irwin and 10 from Lauren Gerken.
Next up for the Lady Titans (4-2) is a chance to stop a two-game skid on Thursday night playing host to WBL rival Elida in a game broadcast live on WZOQ Radio.
Kaelyn Grothause and Karsyn Erford finished the night as the top scorers for the Titans with eight each while teammate Katie Kaufman tossed in seven.
“I thought we played great defense in the the first half and saw positives from both Katie (Kaufman) and Kaitlyn (Kimmet) both defending and playing in the post. We didn’t shoot well tonight and our half court offense looked discombobulated. We’ve gotta keep working to get some offense going but we did get better tonight” opined 11th year OG head coach Troy Yant on his teams performance.
Scoring:
LB (47):
Karis Willow 5
Sophia Barbara 2
Kylie Recker 16
Riley Irwin 11
Lauren Gerken 10
Addi Crow 3
FT: 6/8
3PT: 7 (Recker 3, Irwin 3, Willlow)
TO: 13
OG (34):
Karsyn Erford 8
Lily Haselman 3
Maggie Verhoff 2
Kaelyn Grothause 8
Myka Aldrich 4
Katie Kaufman 7
Chloee Glenn 2
FT: 3/6
3PT: 1/11 (Erford)
TO: 19
JV: OG 57-19