COLUMBUS GROVE – Ottawa Glandorf finished off the 2022 portion of their schedule on Thursday night with a 36-30 victory over Route 65 rival Columbus Grove.
Playing without senior post Chloee Glenn the Titans found their points harder to come by against a stingy Columbus Grove 2-3 zone defense in the two squads annual meeting.
“Against Crestview we had 27 points in the paint from our post player Chloee and Katie (Kaufman), vs Grove we had three. Without consistent point in the paint it’s very hard to find scoring elsewhere as we had to replace Maggie (Verhoff) and Chloee with defensive players and that broke our offensive rhythm we had been building over the last four games” said Titan boss Troy Yant after the contest.
OG jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the opening minute of the game on baskets by Lily Haselman and Kaufman but saw that lead to be short lived as the Bulldogs turned to sophomore sharpshooter Lauryn Auchmuty who splashed home a pair of top of the key triples to push her squad into a 6-5 lead with 5:50 left in the opening stanza.
Unfortunately for the Bulldogs the aforementioned lead would be their last as the visitors snatched an 8-6 lead on the ensuing possession thanks to a three point goal of their own from Kaelyn Grothause that propelled OG to a 15-11 lead at the first stoppage.
Both squads suffered bouts of offensive futility in the second quarter as Grove’s basket from Brynn Fortman with 7:44 was their last until an Auchmuty triple at 3:20 to keep Grove within a point. Ottawa Glandorf’s Karsyn Erford notched both of her teams points in the period on a baby hook shot at 6:55 and a free throw with under nine seconds remaining to remain in front 18-16 at the halftime buzzer.
Continuing the run of great defense and not so great shooting percentages in the third quarter the Bulldogs found themselves again within a point at 20-19 thanks to a three pointer by Jaylen Sautter that snapped an over five minute drought for the hosts.
Ottawa Glandorf fared just slightly better than their hosts in the third thanks to a pair of shots from beyond the arc from Erford and a buzzer beater from Emma Brinkman to take a 26-19 lead into the final eight minutes of play that ended their own run of over three minutes with no baskets,
Columbus Grove pulled within three points on a pair of occasions in the fourth period during a run by Auchmuty and Jaylen Sautter but were unable to keep the Titans off of the scoreboard as again a pair of triples, this time by Grothause and Karsyn Erford helped to keep the score just out of reach.
Although OG finished the fourth quarter shooting just 2 of 6 from the free throw line it was Erford again who provided the final punch of the night to her team high 12 markers when she connected from inside the arc with just under a minute to go for the final tally in a 36-30 victory, the 11th straight in the series for her side.
Lauryn Auchmuty led all scorers on the evening with 16 points for the Bulldogs (6-6) who are next in action on January 5th when they travel to Leipsic for a Northwest Conference/Putnam County League tilt against the Vikings.
Next up for Ottawa Glandorf (9-2) is a Western Buckeye League clash in St. Marys on January 5th in a battle between two of the three unbeatens in the conference.
“Once Grove went zone we never really found our offensive rhythm the rest of the night and it left some “hard to plan for” lineups on the floor with our subbing and rotations to try to get the offense started. Fortunately we won and we get a few days to practice and get better, but Karsyn is beginning to step up for us” finished Yant on his teams performance on the evening.
Scoring:
OG (36):
Karsyn Erford 12
Lily Haselman 3
Kaelyn Grothause 8
Emma Brinkman 3
Carlie Brinkman 3
Kaitlyn Kimmet 4
Katie Kaufman 3
FT: 6/17
3PT: 6 (Erford 2, Grothause 2, Kimmet, E. Brinkman)
TO: 8
Grove (30):
Lauryn Auchmuty 16
Jaylen Sautter 6
Brynn Fortman 6
Nicole Nesby 2
FT: 4/9
3PT: 4 (Auchmuty 4, Sautter)
TO: 14
JV: OG 31-19