ELIDA – For the second straight season the OG Titans are headed to the regional round as the Elida district champions thanks to a defeat of Fairview as they held off a late Apache charge for a 47-38 victory.
Locked in a defensive struggle through the first two and a half minutes the Apaches reached the scoreboard first and zipped out to a 4-0 lead on baskets by Kelly Crites and Karrie Smith while forcing their opponents into four early turnovers.
Ottawa Glandorf tied the game with 3:09 to go in the opening quarter on an Erin Kaufman basket and took their first lead on the juniors second consecutive make just moments later.
Tied at 6-6 and with time running down in the period the Titans pulled ahead by a basket as the horn sounded on the opening eight minutes of play on a fast break basket by freshman Myka Aldrich off of a pass by teammate Chloee Glenn that represented the third time in a four quarter span on the Union Bank Court floor that beat a buzzer dating back to the middle quarters of Thursday evenings win over Liberty Benton.
Utilizing their deep bench and ability to line change players the Titans jumped out to a 20-13 lead on baskets by Aldrich, Glenn, and a triple by junior Ella Okuley. Fairview crawled back to a pair of five point deficits as the opening half wound to a close and put a stop to a nearly five minute span without a basket on a free throw by Cassie Mavis and a pair of connections from beyond the arc by Karrie Smith.
Leading by a single basket at 15-13 the Titans turned themselves to the long ball again on a make by senior Anna Siefker that cued a 7-0 run to end the half and put OG on top 20-13 at the horn.
Fairview leading scorer Kiersten Cline cut the OG lead to 20-15 seconds into the third period but was unable to connect on a shot outside of a lone free throw later on as the Titan defense hounded she and her teammate while keeping them off of the scoreboard.
With their defense shutting out the opposing offense the Ottawa Glandorf offense itself leaped into high gear to the tune of 13 points that included a three pointer by Lily Haselman and a six point outburst by Myka Aldrich who topped her previous career high of eight with her 10th point at 23.4 remaining to put of on top 33-16 after three.
Nearly a year to the day after finding themselves unable to survive a Titan onslaught that led to a 64-43 season ending setback the Apaches found their stride with the basketball in the final eight minutes as they would outscore OG 22-14 and pull within 40-34 with 2:33 left on a triple by Kelly Crites.
Kelsey Erford torched the Apaches a season ago for 12 of her 14 points in the third period but was unable to replicate that performance on this day as she was held to four first half points and forced to attempt to find her points from the line in the fourth to keep OG on top.
“I felt Fairview did a good job limiting Kelsey and wearing her out which may have led to her struggles at the line” said Titan boss Troy Yant.
Through the final four minutes of the game it was Titan junior Erin Kaufman who found herself consistently walking to the opposite end of the court to the free throw line and able to deliver for her team as she would knock down 6 of 8 en route to a dozen points. “Erin helped to seal the game at the free throw line while helping to handle the ball and pressure as the game got tight” remarked Yant after the contest.
Myka Aldrich’s career high 12 points helped to pace the Titans to the 47-38 victory and led her head coach to say about her great all around day “I thought Myka grew up a little today coming up huge contributing points throughout the game which effectively filled in for points Kelsey is normally able to contribute.”
“I thought we had a chance to bust it open in the second half, we were up 17 or 18 and had a good look at the basket but we missed and they went down and hit a three then the game started to get tighter and we struggled at the free throw line when Chloee Glenn fouled out after an earlier fouls discrepancy where the scoreboard had assigned her foul to another player so we were left shorthanded to finish the game”.
Fairview sees their season come to an end at the hands of the Titans for the second consecutive season with a record of 21-4. The Apaches were led in scoring by senior Karrie Smith who connected on three triples along the way.
OG (23-2) is headed to Lexington on Wednesday evening for their fifth regional appearance in the last six seasons and will take on a Delta Panthers squad they defeated on January 23rd in Ottawa by a 51-37 score. The game is the second of the two contests at Lexington and will begin at 8:00 P.M. and can be heard live on WZOQ Radio.
Scoring:
OG (47):
Kelsey Erford 6
Anna Siefker 3
Lily Haselman 3
Ella Okuley 3
Myka Aldrich 12
Erin Kaufman 12
Katie Kaufman 2
Chloee Glenn 6
FT: 10/19
3PT: 3 (Siefker, Haselman, Okuley)
Fairview (38):
Carrie Zeedyk 4
Karrie Smith 13
Kelly Crites 6
Allison Rhodes 2
Kiersten Cline 8
Olivia Ricica 2
FT: 10/16
3PT: 4 (Smith 3, Crites)