ELIDA – Senior Erin Kaufman scored a game high 21 points despite playing the fourth quarter in foul trouble as Ottawa Glandorf downed rival Liberty Benton 35-31 to claim the Elida District title.
Thursday night’s hero Lily Haselman whose shot as time expired sent the Titans into the finals struck again late in the fourth quarter for her only points of the contest. Trailing 27-26 following a go ahead basket by Liberty Benton’s Riley Irwin the 5’3 Titan sparkplug found herself wide open on the wing and buried a triple to give her squad a 29-27 lead they would never relinquish.
Ottawa Glandorf jumped ahead 2-0 on the scoreboard as Erin Kaufman scored off of the opening possession and held the Eagles scoreless for the first two and a half minutes before a Lauren Gerken trimmed the lead to 2-1 before another a pair of baskets from Kaufman and junior Myka Aldrich.
Liberty Benton’s lone field goal of the first eight minutes came from the hands of junior sharpshooter Riley Irwin with 1:24 to go before the horn to cut the OG lead to 7-4 at the end of one.
Averaging 8.3 points per game in seven career meetings with the Eagles, Erin Kaufman went to work again on the offensive end for OG early in the second as her lone basket upped the lead to 9-4 before Liberty Benton tied the contest 9-9 with 3:53 remaining before the halftime break with an Irwin triple and a basket inside by Chelsea May.
Freshman Kaitlyn Kimmet pushed the Titans back into the lead at 12-9 with her second three point goal in as many games with 2:35 on the clock as part of a 15-10 first half score.
Early in the third Ottawa Glandorf ran their lead to as high as 20-10 with 5:27 to go on a personal five point run by Erin Kaufman but saw their lead cut into as the foul count began to rise up in the game by Liberty Benton on a triple and a long two by Lauren Gerken.
Trailing 25-14 after baskets allowed to Aldrich on the fast break and Kaufman again, the Eagles finished off the quarter’s scoring moments later to pull within 25-19 on a marker by Kylie Recker seconds before the horn.
Liberty Benton and Ottawa Glandorf each found themselves without the services of their stars in Irwin and Kaufman respectively to open the fourth and were forced to find other ways to attempt to score on their opponents stingy defense.
Buckets by Lauren Gerken and Brooke Deter through the middle of the period pulled Liberty Benton within 26-25 at 4:46 just seconds after Kaufman returned to the Titans lineup and knocked down a pair of free throws.
Erin Kaufman finished the fourth quarter 6 of 8 from the free throw line and ended the contest connecting on 9 of her 14 tosses in the game which saw her account for all but six of OG’s 20 second half points.
Liberty Benton who entered the contest ranked #3 in the final Associated Press poll of the season became the second consecutive state ranked team (#8 Delphos Jefferson) to fall to the Titans in Elida and ends their season at 24-2.
Sophomore Lauren Gerken accounted for a team high 15 points while teammate Riley Irwin who fouled out with a couple of minutes remaining ended her junior campaign with 9.
Ottawa Glandorf improves to 19-7 on the year and will next take on the Wauseon Indians on Wednesday night at 7:30pm in Findlay at Jerry Snodgrass Gymnasium and can be heard live on WZOQ Radio
Titan coach Troy Yant after the contest remarked “I was very proud of our girls coming out and playing well and really focusing on defense and making LB work for everything. Erin paced us the whole game and I felt dominated at times. When Erin was on the bench to begin the fourth we did just enough to hold on, and then we held on and did what we needed to do to maintain the victory.”
Yant followed up on his teams effort saying “I can’t say enough about how proud I am of these girls overcoming so much adversity, and with significant holes in our lineup we just took down back to back state ranked teams.”
Scoring:
OG (35):
Lily Haselman 4
Emma Brinkman 2
Myka Aldrich 4
Carlie Brinkman 1
Kaitlyn Kimmet 5
Erin Kaufman 21
FG: 10/35
3PT: 2/7 (Haselman, Kimmet)
FT: 13/20
REB: 31 (E. Kaufman 9)
TO: 12
Liberty Benton (31):
Riley Irwin 9
Brooke Deeter 2
Lauren Gerken 15
Kylie Recker 2
Chelsea May 3
FG: 11/36
3PT: 3/16 (Irwin 2, Gerken)
FT: 6/9
REB: 24
TO: 12