ST. MARYS – Ottawa Glandorf survived 30 offensive turnovers on Thursday night as they visited WBL rival St. Marys and emerged with their 39th straight conference victory, a 44-31 win.
OG scored on the opening tip of the game as senior Kelsey Erford rushed through the Roughriders defense for a layup to give the visitors a 2-0 lead and would find herself responsible for six first quarter points. Chloee Glenn and Anna Siefker combined for nine points in the first eight minutes to push the Titans to a 15-9 lead at the buzzer despite a 4/4 performance at the line from Kiley Tennant to help the Riders trim the Titan advantage.
St. Marys continued to cut into their opponents lead in the opening three minutes of the second quarter and as close as 15-11 with 5:40 to go on a Noelle Ruane basket. Ottawa Glandorf’s first score of the period came with 5:00 remaining on a score by Chloee Glenn but keyed a Titan run from Erford that ran the lead to 23-13 at the break.
At the half the teams combined for 28 turnovers and a 1/7 three point shooting performance in a defensive slugfest that seemed at times more like a track meet as opposed to a basketball game.
In the third period the Roughriders were held to just a trio of makes from the field, led by Elena Menker’s two pointer at 5:12 that cut the lead to 29-15.
Unfortunately for the hosts, the Titans offensive rebounding and tempo in transition led to multiple makes from the free throw line and a three pointer from Ella Okuley that stretched the score to 37-21 heading into the last eight minutes.
Chloee Glenn helped to lead the board attack for the Titans on the night as they out rebounded St. Marys 40-20. Glenn utilized multiple opportunities in the second half for stick backs on her way to a double double and her fifth straight game in double figures as she would end with 14 points and 10 boards on the evening.
“Glenn is unstoppable, she rebounds so strong” remarked St. Marys head coach Jon Burke after the game.
Titan teammates Kelsey Erford (7), and Erin Kaufman (10) combined to pull down second chances for the OG offense in the fourth quarter to secure the 44-31 victory.
St. Marys was led in scoring by Kendall Dieringer who connected for five of her team high 11 markers in the fourth quarter while Ottawa Glandorf was paced by Glenn and Kelsey Erford each with 14.
“Hats off to a great OG team. They are a strong and physical team. We have quite a few positives we can take away from this game, we played a great defensive game but came up short on our opportunities of open shots and layups. Hopefully this game will be a good building block for us to learn from and continue to improve” said Burke.
The Roughriders (5-2, 2-1) are off until Tuesday evening when they travel to face Bellefontaine while the Titans (8-0, 2-0) are in action Saturday afternoon at 12:30 P.M. playing host to Perrysburg.
With the win Ottawa Glandorf has now downed St. Marys 11 straight times and owns a 22-game regular season winning streak.
Scoring:
OG (44):
Kelsey Erford 14
Anna Siefker 5
Ella Okuley 3
Myka Aldrich 2
Erin Kaufman 4
Katie Kaufman 2
Chloee Glenn 14
FG: 20/44
3PT: 2/8 (Siefker, Okuley)
FT: 4/10
REB: 40 (16 offensive)
TO: 30
St. Marys (31):
Haley Felver 2
Elena Menker 4
Kendall Dieringer 11
Noelle Ruane 4
Cora Rable 5
Kiley Tennant 4
Emma Birt 2
FG: 11/38
3PT: 1/7 (Dieringer)
FT: 8/15
REB: 20
TO: 25
JV: St. Marys 47-15