OTTOVILLE – Ottoville’s duo of Nicole Knippen and Elise Kramer combined for 41 points Wednesday night at L.W. Heckman Gymnasium in a 66-17 sectional semifinals victory over Pettisville.
In the opening seconds of the contest Knippen, the recently named Putnam County League Player of the Year knocked down a three point goal from the left win to give Ottoville a lead they would never relinquish. Kramer got into what would become a scoring barrage herself by knocking down a triple of her own to push the lead to 6-0.
Ottoville’s full court pressure defense forced nine Pettisville turnovers and a 19-5 advantage at the end of the first period that saw the Blackbirds score their first basket on an Alli King three at 3:26 that cut the lead to 8-3.
Three point goals in the second stanza from Kramer, Knippen, Tori Thomas, and senior Alexa Honigford upped the Big Green advantage to 27-5 just a minute and a half into the quarter before the visitors were forced to call a timeout.
“Our defensive pressure was able to spark us offensively. I was most pleased with our effort together with how we passed the ball to find that transition layup as well as an open shooter. We had several players knock down those shots which showed our confidence in each other” said second year head coach Michelle Leach on her teams performance.
Pettisville freshman post Lily Wiemken put the Blackbirds on the board with 5:47 left before the half and cut the deficit to 29-7 and was joined in the scoring column by sophomore teammate Ellie Grieser who dropped in a pair of back to back triples for her only points of the game.
Leading 45-13 to start the second half of play the Big Green quickly enabled the running clock for the rest of the contest thanks to baskets by Skylar Turnwald, Kramer, and a personal nine point run by Knippen that included her third three point goal of the evening.
Alli King cut the Ottoville lead to 60-15 and stopped a drought for the Blackbirds of nearly 14 minutes of game action and accounted for a second basket that would be her teams only other make of the second half before the Big Green closed out the win on a fourth Knippen triple and a three point play by Tori Thomas for the final markers of the evening.
Pettisville’s season ends with a 2-17 record while Ottoville improves to 15-8 and will host the winner of Thursday’s Edon vs Antwerp contest on Saturday evening at 7:00 P.M.
Nicole Knippen led all scorers with 24 points and sits at 990 career points while teammate Elise Kramer finished with 17 in a performance that included a trio of makes from beyond the arc.
“Both Nicole and Elise played an outstanding game! Elise shot the basketball with a lot of confidence tonight and I thought we did a great job of recognizing that and setting her up for those shots. Nicole was solid and was able to work her inside game, midrange game, and outside game” leach gushed on the Big Green duo’s night.
Scoring:
Ottoville (66):
Tori Thomas 8
Alexa Honigford 8
Skylar Turnwald 9
Elise Kramer 17
Nicole Knippen 24
3PT: 10 (Knippen 4, Kramer 3, Honigford 2, Turnwald, Thomas)
FT: 1/1
TO: 8
Pettisville (17):
Ellie Grieser 6
Hollyn Klopfenstein 2
Alli King 7
Lily Wiemken 2
FT: 0/2
3PT: 3 (Grieser, King)
TO: 25