LIMA – Ottawa Glandorf closed out the 2024 portion of their schedule on Monday night with a 58-25 win over Shawnee that can best be described by Clint Eastwood’s 1966 western classic “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.”
The good for the Titans (8-0, 4-0) during their 23rd consecutive WBL victory was the play of junior guard Karsyn Erford. Erford notched a career high tying 21 points, including 17 in the first half of the run away victory.
“Karsyn was focused on making her shots tonight and we were able to rotate her more to keep her fresher,” said O-G coach Troy Yant.
Ottawa Glandorf raced out to a quick 12-0 lead through the first three minutes fueled by fast break and deep baskets from Liv Grothause, Karsyn Erford, Carlie Brinkman, and Kaitlyn Kimmet.
The bad could potentially best be described by head coach Troy Yant who remarked “we crossed off a lot of things on the checklist, but it would be nice for one of our back up post players to seize the opportunity.”
As far as the ugly goes, the Titans committed a season high 28 turnovers on the evening.
Similar to their loss in Ottawa a season ago, Shawnee (4-7, 0-4) struggled to get going on the offensive side and were forced into more turnovers (16) than points (7) in the first eight minutes of play.
Junior Alexis Whetstone’s basket with :40 remaining in the first period signaled the last the host Indians would deposit on the scoreboard until a pair of free throws from Lauren Potts found their mark with 1:58 in the second.
Trailing 38-13 at the break the Indians duo of Cadence Wilson and Anna Menke combined for seven markers but again saw nearly six minutes disappear between makes while the Titans upped their advantage.
Sophomore power led the scoring column in the fourth for O-G as the trio of Gracie Lammers, Madison McKee, and Calverie Fox helped nail down the Titans third straight victory over Shawnee.
“I thought our starters played well, and it was nice to see Megan (Horstman) being able to play with the sprained ankle she suffered on Saturday,” said Yant. “We’ve got some things to work on this week, but we got good rotations from our depth players.”
If the win was good for the Titans, getting a chance to get extended minutes for senior Kaelyn Grothause was great. Grothause returned from injury in Saturday’s win over Crestview and notched her first points of the season on a first quarter basket, and a pair of third quarter free throw tosses.
Shawnee was led in scoring by freshman post Cadence Wilson and will return to action next when they open the lid on their 2025 schedule January 7th at Bluffton.
January 4th will see the Titans back on the hardwood at the Supreme Court against county rival Miller City for the first time since 2016 as part of their annual “Lady Titan Youth Basketball” celebration.
Scoring:
OG (58):
Liv Grothause 6
Karsyn Erford 21
Carlie Brinkman 6
Gracie Lammers 6
Madison McKee 2
Kaelyn Grothause 4
Greta Liebrecht 2
Kaitlyn Kimmet 9
Calverie Fox 2
FT: 6/8
3PT: 4 (Erford 3, Kimmet)
TO: 28
Shawnee (25):
Morgan Betts 2
Anna Menke 6
Alexis Whetstone 2
Lauren Potts 2
Brynn Patterson 2
Cadence Wilson 8
Mya Williams 3
FT: 5/6
3PT: 2 (Menke)
TO: 37
JV: Ottawa Glandorf 42-34 (Madison McKee 16, Rilee Brinkman 11 O-G)