DEFIANCE – Trailing at halftime on Thursday night the Ottawa Glandorf Lady Titans rallied in the regular season finale for both teams to snag a 48-31 come from behind victory.
Honoring their seniors the Bulldogs opened with a pair of baskets from three of their five starters to take a 7-2 lead through the first period on makes by Kinley Maynard, Elizabeth Hoffman, and Mira Horvath.
OG reached the scoreboard for the first time on a free throw set from junior Katie Kaufman but were unable to pull any closer than 9-4 in the opening eight minutes when a floater from Karsyn Erford found the bottom of the net in a period marred by Titan miscues.
The Bulldogs continued their hot shooting through the second frame as Maynard torched the nets for a pair of triples to give her troops a 14-6 lead with just a minute and a half gone from the clock that prompted OG coach Troy Yant to take his second timeout of the half.
Working off of pieces of nine first half Defiance miscues the Titans pulled within six at the halftime stoppage thanks to baskets by Kaitlin Kimmet, Carlie Brinkman, Kaelyn Grothause, and an under the weather Kaufman.
Mira Horvath, a Defiance senior coming off of a 25-point performance in Tuesday night’s victory over Paulding added a pair of baskets to her first half total of six points for the only markers of the third for her team. Horvath’s baskets stopped a pair of long runs of futility on the scoreboard as the visiting Titans began to make their run at the lead.
Six points from Katie Kaufman pulled the OG deficit to 21-18 with 5:42 left in the period while a pair of triples from Carlie Brinkman and Kaelyn Grothause pushed the Titans into their first lead of the night 24-23 with 3:25. Lily Haselman added to Ottawa Glandorf’s 19-4 quarter run with a basket and was aided with a five point run from freshman classmate Karsyn Erford to amass a 32-23 advantage heading to the fourth.
Over the last stanza the Bulldogs utilized back to back baskets from Elizabeth Hoffman and Horvath but never got closer than eight points of OG as the visitors spent most of the quarter at the free throw line where they connected on 10 of 14 to ice a 48-31 victory and an outright Western Buckeye League title.
Defiance ends their regular season with a 2-20 overall record and an 0-9 mark in conference play. Kinley Maynard (15), and Mira Horvath (14) led the Bulldogs in scoring. Next up for Defiance is a sectional semi-finals matchup against Liberty Benton in Hamler on Feburary 18th at 7:30pm.
Ottawa Glandorf (19-3, 9-0) clinches their 14th WBL championship and will next be in action in their tournament opener on February 18th at 1pm in Ayersville against either Paulding or Spencerville.
Junior Katie Kaufman paced the Titans with 15 while teammate Karsyn Erford notched the 11th double figure scoring game of her young career with 10 as Ottawa Glandorf defeated Defiance for the 14th straight time.
Scoring:
OG (48):
Karsyn Erford 10
Megan Horstman 2
Lily Haselman 2
Kaelyn Grothause 6
Emma Brinkman 1
Myka Aldrich 3
Kaitlyn Kimmet 2
Carlie Brinkman 7
Katie Kaufman 15
FT: 18/24
3PT: 2 (Grothause, C. Brinkman)
TO: 14
Defiance (31):
Kinley Maynard 15
Olivia Brenner 2
Elizabeth Hoffman 4
Mira Horvath 14
Caroline McDonald 2
FT: 3/8
3PT: 2 (Maynard 2)
TO: 23
JV: Ottawa Glandorf 63-28 (Titans finish 22-0 on the season)