LIMA – Pesky Bath proved to be a thorn in the side of unbeaten Ottawa Glandorf on Thursday night at The Tub.
Trailing 24-22 at halftime the #1 team in Division 5 rallied to outscore the host Wildcats 33-17 in the second half to move to 15-0 overall, and 7-0 in Western Buckeye League play.
“I thought it was a great game by Bath,” said O-G head coach Troy Yant. “They played with confidence, hustle, and determination and hit shots early to build even more confidence. It felt like a much closer game than the final score indicated.”
O-G jumped out to a quick 5-0 lead in the opening minute on a five-point run from senior Carlie Brinkman but were unable to hold off the Wildcats (5-12, 4-3) who utilized a pair of long balls from Allyson Harnishfeger and Addie Rex to cut the lead to 9-8.
Bath forced double digit turnovers in the first half and used a run of triples again in the second quarter from Faith Clark, Izzy McDermott, and Harnishfeger to amass a 24-22 halftime advantage.
Stymied by the Wildcat defense and held to just four points, junior Karsyn Erford put the Titans offense on her back in the third. Three triples and a three point play by the O-G leading scorer accounted for 12 of game high 18 markers while helping the visitors to a 20-7 period and a 42-31 lead.
“Karsyn led the charge in the third to give us the margin of comfort we couldn’t get earlier,” said Yant.
While the third stanza belonged to Erford, classmate Liv Grothause reaped the rewards of the renewed Titan running game in the fourth to salt away the win as she notched eight of her 12 to give O-G the victory.
Entering play Thursday night the Wildcats had connected on 80 attempts from behind the arc, and early made it seem they intended to do the same on this night. Overall the hosts landed 8 of 19 attempts while holding O-G to 5 of 11 from deep.
Senior Faith Clark led the Wildcats in scoring for the second time this season with 11 while the duo of McDermott and Harnishfeger each contributed seven.
Bath returns to play with a 1pm varsity only tilt on Saturday with Delphos St. Johns looking to end a four-game slide while the Titans are off to Toledo to match up with Central Catholic.
Ottawa Glandorf outrebounded Bath 26-9 and held a 36-14 advantage in the paint for their fourth straight win in the series.
Box Score:
OG (55):
Liv Grothause 12
Karsyn Erford 18
Carlie Brinkman 7
Megan Horstman 4
Madison McKee 2
Kaelyn Grothause 6
Greta Liebrecht 2
Kaitlyn Kimmet 4
FT: 2/6
FG: 24/35
3PT: 5/11 (Erford 3, C. Brinkman, K. Grothause)
REB: 26 (Erford 5)
TO: 20
Bath (41):
Faith Clark 11
Mara Davis 2
Alycen Stumbaugh 3
Marlie Mason 2
Gwyn Foust 6
Addie Rex 3
Izzy McDermott 7
Allyson Harnishfeger 7
FT: 3/4
FG: 15/36
3PT: 8/19 (Clark 3, Harnishfeger 2, Stumbaugh, McDermott, Rex)
REB: 9 (Foust 4)
TO: 17
By Quarter:
O-G 16-6-20-13
Bath 8-16-7-10
JV: Ottawa Glandorf (15-0) 57-14