OTTAWA – Led by big performances from sophomores Zoe Best and Grace Freiberger the Shawnee Indians handed host Ottawa Glandorf their first league loss of the season 40-38.
Junior Cecelia Worsham connected on a pair of free throws to open the game for the Indians just :21 seconds into the game to give her squad a 2-0 lead and provide the only points of the first half for her team to not come from teammate Zoe Best.
Caught in a scoring battle with OG’s Erin Kaufman, Best pushed the Shawnee lead to 8-3 as part of a personal four point run before Kaufman scored her second basket of the opening period late to cut the lead to 8-5.
Sophomore Katie Kaufman trimmed the deficit to 8-7 in the opening seconds of the second stanza before the Indians tossed in their only marker of the quarter, a layup from Best with 6:08 remaining.
Ottawa Glandorf committed 10 turnovers in the first quarter but settled down in the second and found themselves able to take and hold onto the lead on the scoreboard with baskets by Lily Haselman and a five point burst that included and and-one connection by Erin Kaufman for three of her nine first half markers.
Leading 14-10 to open the third the Titans again turned to their college bound senior Erin Kaufman who worked through the 2-3 zone being employed by the Indians for an early basket to run the advantage to 16-10.
Carlie Brinkman’s free throws with 6:52 represented the only two points of the period not scored by Kaufman for the Titans.
Back to back triples by Zoe Best cut the OG lead to 19-16 with 5:10 in the stanza and put a stop to a period of over seven minutes without a basket for the Indians. Best struck again for the visitors with 2:30 to tie the game at 22-22 to end a five point OG run but saw her team unable to stop Kaufman again at the other end as she connected on the third and fourth of her five free throw attempts in the quarter to send the Titans to a 24-22 lead at the buzzer.
Scoreless through the opening 24 minutes of play, Grace Freiberger struck the Titan defense for three straight scores to force a timeout with the Indians on top 28-24.
Three triples in the final five minutes by Emma Brinkman and Chloe Schroeder pulled the hosts within three points on different occasions but were stopped from taking the lead as Freiberger continued to knock down shots on the way to 14 points.
Ottawa Glandorf trailed with 7.3 seconds remaining 40-35 but got within two on a steal of a sideline inbound pass by Katie Kaufman and a successful foul shot. The final opportunity for OG to tie the game came after a Shawnee turnover but was unable to produce a shot before time expired to secure the Indians 40-38 victory.
With the win Shawnee (19-1) moves to 7-1 in Western Buckeye League play and stops a 9-game losing streak against the Titans while also keeping themselves in a tie for the league title with a game against Kenton on Thursday standing in the way of at least a share.
Zoe Best led all scorers with a game high 22 while Erin Kaufman moved to within a dozen points of 1,000 for her career with a Titan best 19 points.
OG (13-7) like Shawnee is 7-1 in the league and will host Defiance on Thursday evening in an attempt to secure a share of their sixth conference crown in the past seven seasons.
Scoring:
Shawnee (40):
Zoe Best 22
Hailee Conrad 2
Grace Freiberger 14
Cecelia Worsham 2
FT: 11/18
3PT: 3 (Best 2, Freiberger)
TO: 18
OG (38):
Chloe Schroeder 6
Lily Haselman 2
Emma Brinkman 3
Carlie Brinkman 2
Erin Kaufman 19
Katie Kaufman 6
FT: 11/17
3PT: 3 (Schroeder 2, E. Brinkman)
TO: 22
JV: 46-35 OG (Ashlyn Siefker 16 pts)