DEFIANCE – Ottawa Glandorf junior Karsyn Erford had herself a day on Wednesday.
The 5’8 Erford was named Northwest District Player of the Year in the afternoon, and proved why on Wednesday night as she scored a game high 18 points to lead O-G past WBL rival Bath 59-26.
As they’ve done all season, the Titans (21-0) pushed the pace of the game with their pressure defense and forced Bath into 29 turnovers.
“The girls played really focused and the defense was stout throughout the game,” said Ottawa Glandorf head coach Troy Yant who has now won 11 of his 15 career meetings with the Wildcats.
O-G jumped out to an early 7-0 lead in the opening minutes as Erford and seniors Megan Horstman, and Kaitlyn Kimmet teamed up to put the Wildcats on their heels.
Kimmet, named a first team district selection earlier in the day kicked off her own scoring frenzy and finished with 17 markers, her seventh time this season with that many or more.
Bath (9-15) hit four of their six first half shots from the field from beyond the arc. Faith Clark, the lone senior for the Wildcats splashed home a pair of deep triples to help her squad pull within 16-12 early in the second quarter.
While Erford dominated the scoreboard with six in the first quarter, she was perhaps even better in the third where she accounted for eight of her 18 and helped push the game out of hand. Finding herself with open opportunities, Kimmet splashed a pair of triples from the top of the arc and hit for eight of her own to run the lead to 51-20 heading to the fourth to cap off a 20-4 stanza.
“Bath made some early threes that I felt we at least challenged them on,” said Yant. “The longer the game went on, the more we were able to contest their looks. Led by the offense of Kaitlyn and Karsyn we eventually found our footing.”
Leading by a nearly running clock margin, the Titans were able to dig deep into their bench and be rewarded as production on the scoreboard came from subs Madison McKee (six), and Leah Escamilla (four).
“Tonight was a good first tournament game to get all of our girls some tournament experience,” finished Yant.
Saturday night O-G will head back to Defiance High School as they will battle 19-5 Paulding, 46-29 winners over Delta in the nightcap.
Bath finishes their season, the 27th under legendary head coach Greg Mauk with a losing record for just the second time in school history (1983/84) while suffering their second loss to Ottawa Glandorf.
Scoring:
O-G (59):
Liv Grothause 4
Karsyn Erford 18
Megan Horstman 3
Madison McKee 6
Kaelyn Grothause 7
Leah Escamilla 4
Kaitlyn Kimmet 17
FG: 25/57
3PT: 4/14 (Kimmet 2, Horstman, K. Grothause)
FT: 5/9
REB: 29 (16 offensive – Kimmet/McKee 5)
TO: 10
Bath (26):
Faith Clark 12
Alycen Stumbaugh 3
Gwyn Foust 6
Addie Rex 3
Izzy McDermott 2
FG: 11/31
3PT: 4/14 (Clark 2, Stumbaugh, Rex)
FT: 0/0
REB: 23 (6 offensive – Foust 5)
TO: 29