OTTOVILLE – Timely three point goals and defensive stops helped the Ottoville Big Green to a 43-36 victory Saturday night at L.W. Heckman Gymnasium over Putnam County rival Leipsic.
An opening eight minutes of play featuring multiple lead changes saw each team splash a pair of shots from beyond the arc as the visiting Vikings pushed ahead with a minute to go on a triple by junior Caleb Ellerbrock to take an 11-8 advantage before the buzzer.
Three point goals became the story of the second half for the Big Green as all four of their baskets in the period came from behind the arc to pull even or keep themselves close on the scoreboard.
William Miller, in pursuit of his 1,000th career point when the night began knocked down the first of two from deep to tie the game at 11-11 early on and helped returning teammate Kellen Schlagbaum push the Big Green into the lead on the next trip down the floor by setting up a triple to take a 14-11 lead.
Leipsic senior Mason Brandt connected on a pair of baskets from deep himself as part of his 10 first half points to tie the game at 14-14 and give his squad a 21-17 advantage with 1:26 left in the quarter. Ottoville pulled within 21-20 just before the break on a Carter Schnipke three ball with :35 left to again trim the Vikings lead.
Ottoville continued their scoring streak in the opening moments of the third stanza as a four point run by Carter Horstman and Miller put the hosts in the drivers seat 24-21.
Trailing 27-21 after a Big Green triple from Alex Suever the Vikings scored the loudest basket of the game and sent the purple and gold fans into a frenzy as Mason Brandt rushed down the lane to slam home a miss from a teammate to get within four on the scoreboard.
Over the final minutes of the third the Vikings managed just one additional basket from the field, a Caleb Ellerbrock make with 2:02 to cut the lead back to five before a free throw by Brandt made it a 30-26 Ottoville lead at the end of three.
The two squads combined to shoot 24 free throws in the final eight minutes with 14 finding the bottom of the net. Unfortunately for the visiting Vikings their opponent was able to add a pair of baskets by William Miller and a triple from Carter Schnipke to just a single make at 3:45 by Brandt for their own total.
“Ottoville is a good team, especially at home. They took advantage of some bad turnovers and made timely threes whike we did not do a good job taking advantage of our advantages. We’ve got to get back to being confident and be ready on the short turnaround to earn a share of the league against an underrated Fort Jennings squad on Tuesday” said Leipsic coach Chris Kuhlman.
Leipsic (13-7, 4-2) was led in scoring by Mason Brandt who finished the night with 20 points and broke the schools single season scoring record in the loss.
“What a tremendous night with two great programs. I thought this was the best collective job we did defensively all year, our guys were engaged and executed the game plan against a very special player in Mason Brandt all night. We battled and competed every single possession, I’m so proud of our entire program today and they deserve all of the credit” said Big Green boss Keith Utendorf on the win.
Ottoville (13-8, 5-2) who celebrated the naming of Homecoming Queen and King Aly Saxton and William Horstman respectively moves into first place and snags at least a share of the Putnam County League title for the second year in a row. The Big Green were led in scoring by William Miller who finished with 16 and enters Ottoville’s next game on Friday against Wayne Trace needing four for 1,000 for his career.
Scoring:
Ottoville (43):
William Miller 16
Carter Schnipke 9
Michael Steffan 3
Alex Suever 8
Carter Horstman 2
Michael Turnwald 2
Kellen Schlagbaum 3
FT: 6/13
3PT: 9/24 (Schnipke 3, Miller 2, Suever 2, Schlagbaum, Steffan)
TO: 5
Leipsic (36):
Mason Brandt 20
Caleb Ellerbrock 6
Dillan Niese 2
Paul Maag 8
FT: 10/17
3PT: 4/13 (Brandt 3, Ellebrock)
TO: 12
JV: Ottoville 44-35