ELIDA – Margaretta clinched their fifth trip to the state tournament on Saturday night as they defeated Ottawa Glandorf 36-30 in front of a capacity crowd at the Elida Fieldhouse.
Facing a near mirror image of themselves defensively each team found points hard to come by through the opening eight minutes. Ottawa Glandorf hit just a trio of free throws and held a 3-2 lead with 4:40 remaining in the period.
Senior Jaelle Keller split her first set of charity tosses with 50.7 seconds to go and sent the game tied at 3-3 into the second stanza of play.
Ottawa Glandorf junior Katie Kaufman put the Titans on top 5-3 with her first baskets of the evening with 6:55 but wouldn’t find the scoreboard again until connecting on one of two from the line at 1:42.
While holding their foes off of the scoreboard the Polar Bears pushed across just enough offense to claim the lead on a Jennifer Patrick make with 5:23 showing on the clock and continued to roll to a 12-5 advantage on makes by Lilly Edwards, Kylie Leibacher, and Raegan Heck from outside.
Held to their lowest first half point total since an 11-point output in January of 2021 at Fort Loramie the Titans opened up the third quarter trailing 15-8 and immediately surrendered a 4-point Polar Bear run from Keller and Leibacher.
OG’s duo of Kaelyn Grothause and Karsyn Erford closed the lead to 19-16 with three minutes gone in the quarter on long distance connections and two Chloee Glenn free throws but were unable to draw closer as shots again became hard to come by against the Polar Bears aggressive defense.
Kaitlyn Kimmet’s connections at the line with 1:18 trimmed the advantage again to just four at 24-20 with 1:18 but would represent the final basket for her team until a make by Katie Kaufman brought the Titans within a point at 6:00 in the fourth.
Kaufman, an All-Northwest District selection this season fueled the OG comeback and run early in the final five minutes and even pushed her blue and gold squad into the lead 25-24 with 5:25 to go.
Unfortunately for the Titans their time with the lead would be short lived thanks to consecutive baskets and a five point personal run by Raegan Heck. Junior Eden Palomo’s free throws with 44.8 remaining upped the lead to 32-29 after a Lilly Edwards basket and signaled the end for the Titans saw their deficit continue to grow.
With the clock winding down the Polar Bear faithful rose up from their seats and erupted in cheers as Margaretta led 36-30 and clinched their fifth overall trip to state and first since 2006.
Ottawa Glandorf was led by Katie Kaufman’s 12 points and sees their 9-game win streak come to an end with a 23-4 season record. The Titans will say goodbye to four seniors in Lily Haselman, Chloee Glenn, Maggie Verhoff, and Emma Brinkman who combined for a 94-17 overall record and a trio of Western Buckeye League titles.
Margaretta will head to Dayton to battle Doylestown Chippewa with a 19-6 mark. Raegan Heck led the Polar Bear attack with 10 points on the night.
Scoring:
Margaretta (36):
Lilly Edwards 9
Jaelle Keller 6
Eden Palomo 2
Kylie Leibacher 7
Jennifer Patrick 2
Raegan Heck 10
FG:12/34
3PT: 4/16 (Heck 2, Edwards, Leibacher)
FT: 8/11
TO: 9
OG (30):
Karsyn Erford 4
Kaelyn Grothause 5
Myka Aldrich 2
Kaitlyn Kimmet 4
Katie Kaufman 12
Chloee Glenn 3
FG: 8/34
3PT: 2/20 (Erford, K. Grothause)
FT: 12/21
TO: 7
By Quarter:
OG: 3-5-12-10
Margaretta: 3-12-9-12