ST. MARYS – Ottawa Glandorf wasn’t at full strength physically on Thursday night but were able to fend off a challenge from a pesky St. Marys bunch 55-40 to remain unbeaten in Western Buckeye League play.
“We clearly didn’t look like ourselves tonight,” said O-G head coach Troy Yant. “There were glimpses but our defensive effort wasn’t what we’ve come to expect.”
O-G entered play on Thursday night hitting an average of 5.3 shots per game from behind the arc. Unfortunately for the visiting Titans (13-0, 6-0) on this night they were held to zero makes from deep by the Roughriders (3-12, 2-4).
“The exhaustion seemed to hurt our outside shooting quite a bit, hopefully we can get healthy soon,” said Yant.
St. Marys for their part found their shine from distance as they hit for six triples and were led by senior Reese Rable who connected on three and scored a team high 13 points.
Senior Kaitlyn Kimmet led all scorers on the night with a career high 21 points. The 5’11 Kimmet slashed her way to six first quarter markers and tied the game 8-8 with just :40 remaining in the period.
Karsyn Erford, the leading scorer for the state’s top ranked team added 14 points for her 45th career double figure scoring game but was hampered from playing long stretches due to sickness.
“O-G has a lot of depth,” said St. Marys second year head coach Scott Jordan. “Erford and Kimmet are really tough players.”
Kimmet’s classmate Carlie Brinkman pushed Ottawa Glandorf in front 10-8 with a layup before the quarter break and added three more layups before the half. Kimmet controlled the third quarter for O-G as she scored seven points and extended the advantage to nine late in the stanza.
Runs by both teams through the second half saw the lead ebb and flow to near single digits and back into double digits on the scoreboard in favor of O-G.
St. Marys’ Rable knocked down a pair of triples and a two-point goal in the third to get the Roughriders within 40-31, but would not dent the scoreboard for the rest of the evening as the Titans pushed ahead their advantage.
“I thought we played hard and competed tonight,” said Jordan. “We missed some opportunities and had too many turnovers to come away with a win.”
On the evening the Riders ended just one of four from the free throw line while Ottawa Glandorf connected on 11 of 15 overall and 9 of 11 in the second half.
Ottawa Glandorf has now defeated the Riders 15 straight times dating back to the last St. Marys series win in February of 2011.
Saturday afternoon Bryan will welcome the Roughriders to town while Ottawa Glandorf finds themselves in a second consecutive Saturday afternoon state ranked battle as they play host to county rival Ottoville at the Supreme Court.
Scoring:
OG (55):
Liv Grothause 7
Karsyn Erford 14
Carlie Brinkman 8
Megan Horstman 2
Madison McKee 1
Kaelyn Grothause 2
Kaitlyn Kimmet 21
FT: 11/15
3PT: 0
TO: 12
St. Marys (40):
Sophia Menker 5
Cadence Hirschfeld 7
Lauren Jacobs 8
Calianna Bond-Awls 2
Reese Rable 13
Claire Turner 5
FT: 1/4
3PT: 6 (Rable 3, Jacobs, Hirschfeld, Menker)
TO: 26
JV: Ottawa Glandorf (13-0) won 60-37