OTTAWA – Three Titans scored career highs on Thursday night as the Lady Titans opened their Western Buckeye League season with a 77-39 victory over visiting Kenton.
Sophomore forward Kaitlyn Kimmet led the Ottawa Glandorf offensive attack as she scored a game and career high 16 points while teammates Carlie Brinkman and Karsyn Erford established their own highs with eight and 10 respectively.
“Tonight was a big night for Kaitlyn Kimmet in the half court offense and Carlie was just aggressive everywhere. Our lone freshman Karsyn Erford had a great night off the bench acclimating herself to the varsity game and contributing her first varsity double digit scoring night” spoke Ottawa Glandorf head coach Troy Yant on the success of his young trio.
After falling behind in the opening moments of the first period 5-4 the Titans defense clamped down on the Wildcats to not surrender another score in the stanza while seeing their own offense flourish on a 15-0 run featuring seven different scorers.
Ottawa Glandorf continued to add to their advantage in the second quarter behind a five point run by Erford and baskets by Kimmet and forward Myka Aldrich. Kenton’s duo of Macee Heckathorn and Olivia Nolting knocked down a pair of long range shots to keep the visitors within 34-17 at the halftime break.
Similar to the way they helped the Titans to an opening night victory against Kalida, Maggie Verhoff and Kaelyn Grothause coupled together for 11 points and helped lead the fast break offense that produced baskets for teammates Lily Haselman, Kimmet, and a deep ball from Emma Brinkman.
Trailing 56-29 opening the final eight minutes the Wildcats dropped in the first points but were again kept off of the scoreboard for a spell by a smothering Titans defense who picked up five points from Erford and eight by Kimmet to establish new career highs in Ottawa Glandorf’s 11th straight win over Kenton.
Next up for Kenton (2-2, 0-1) is a non-conference tilt against Pleasant on Monday. The Wildcats were led in scoring by sophomore Olivia Nolting’s eight points.
Ottawa Glandorf (2-0, 1-0) is back in action on Saturday afternoon for a 2pm road matchup against Fairview that can be heard live on WZOQ Radio.
“I saw good things, our bench contributed 35 points tonight and our defense and intensity really didn’t drop off 1-10. Early on we tried to go to Katie Kaufman but after her injury I felt like the entire team stepped up and began attacking the basket. I was excited about the unselfish play and the girls desire to share the basketball and am very excited with the progress, but we still missed a lot of layups” said Yant after the game.
Scoring:
OG (77):
Karsyn Erford 10
Lily Haselman 6
Maggie Verhoff 7
Kaelyn Grothause 8
Emma Brinkman 11
Myka Aldrich 6
Carlie Brinkman 8
Kaitlyn Kimmet 16
Katie Kaufman 5
FT: 14/25
3PT: 3 (Erford, E. Brinkman, Kimmet)
TO: 10
Kenton (39):
Kyla Bostater 4
Ali Harpel 5
Kinze Sprang 2
Sadie Larrabee 7
Macee Heckathorn 6
Olivia Nolting 8
Tatum Miller 7
FT: 7/11
3PT: 4 (Heckathorn 2, Harpel, Nolting)
TO: 25
JV: 62-27 OG