BERLIN – Tri-Valley senior Anna Krupa started hot and finished the same way when she connected on a left elbow jumper with 4.2 seconds remaining in overtime to give her squad a 51-49 victory over Ottawa Glandorf at the annual Classic In The Country event on Saturday afternoon.
Krupa notched the first points of the game just seconds in as she accounted for the first of her three baskets in the opening quarter to lead Tri-Valley to a 12-7 advantage alongside highly recruited junior teammate Lexi Howe who hit for four of her own markers.
Sophomore Katie Kaufman, a game-time decision with a hamstring issue tied the game on the first OG possession at 2-2 on her way to eight points and a stellar defensive effort before fouling out late in the fourth quarter.
Maggie Verhoff led off the Titans three point attack late in the first with the first of her five connections from beyond the arc to cut the lead to 8-7 before a four point run by the Lady Dawgs to end the period.
Ottawa Glandorf continued to pull themselves back within a point of the lead in the second quarter on triples from Verhoff while the defensive pressure from Troy Yant’s crew held their opponent to just eight points in the stanza.
Free throws by Erin Kaufman, Katie Kaufman, and Kaitlyn Kimmet tied the game at 18-18 with 3:18 before a four point run of their own by Katie Kaufman and Emma Brinkman sent the blue and gold into the break leading 22-20.
Verhoff continued to be white hot as the third period opened by knocking down a pair of shots from beyond the arc to give OG a 28-22 lead just a minute and a half into the half.
Tri-Valley pushed across triples of their own from Howe and Jacie Rollison and utilized a free throw by freshman Mackenzie Harvey tied the game at 28-28 at 4:22.
Freshman Kaelyn Grothouse snagged an inbounds pass and raced end to end through the Tri-Valley defense for a basket and added the subsequent free throw for a 31-28 lead and helped teammate Myka Aldich moments later on a basket that helped the Titans amass a 37-31 lead just before the buzzer.
Led by free throws from Lexi Howe and Mackenzie Harvey the Tri-Valley offense climbed into the lead at 38-37 with 2:49 remaining while the defense held the Titans off the scoreboard in the period until 1:45 to go when a second end to end basket by Grothouse ended the OG scoring drought at nearly six and a half mintues.
Anna Krupa pushed the Lady Dawgs into the lead on a pair of occasions late in the stanza but watched as the contest headed to overtime thanks to a three point goal by freshman Kaitlyn Kimmet with seconds to go.
Forced to work through the duo of Krupa and Harvey in the extra period after Howe fouled out with 1:11 in the fourth the Tri-Valley offense tied the game at 49-49 to quell an Ottawa Glandorf run on a three pointer by Harvey for her only make from the field of the day.
Tri-Valley (13-1) with the victory defeats a team from the Western Buckeye League for the second straight season at Classic in the Country as they dispatched Bath last season. Next up for the Lady Dawgs is a Sunday afternoon trip to Pickerington Central for a clash at the first annual Classic in the City against Olentangy Liberty.
“Any time you get beat on a buzzer beater it’s disheartening. I thought our girls played really hard but the reason we came over to play in these kind of games was to give the girls the experience and schedule up. We had way too many turnovers and are not a finished product, we’re getting better. We had 28 turnovers and still took the #4 team in D2 to overtime, we were still right there. Hopefully we can get back to OG and build on this” said Titan coach Troy Yant after the game.
Ottawa Glandorf (9-4) suffers their second loss in the last four games and will return to action against Putnam County rival Ottoville on Tuesday night.
Maggie Verhoff paced the Titans with a career high 17 markers and was joined for high honors by Anna Krupa who also finished with 17 including the eventual game winner.
Scoring:
Tri-Valley (51):
Lexi Howe 15
Janie McLoughlin 6
Karlee Rose 2
Kendall Baughman 2
Anna Krupa 17
Mackenzie Harvey 6
Jacie Rollison 3
FG: 19/53
FT: 10/17
3PT: 3/12 (McLoughlin, Rollison, Harvey)
TO: 14
OG (49):
Maggie Verhoff 17
Kaelyn Grothouse 5
Emma Brinkman 2
Myka Aldrich 5
Kaitlyn Kimmet 7
Erin Kaufman 5
Katie Kaufman 8
FG: 17/41
FT: 9/11
3PT: 6/15 (Verhoff 5, Kimmet)
TO: 28