OTTAWA – Thursday night the OG Lady Titans finished off their annual senior night celebration in style as they laid claim to the outright Western Buckeye League championship for the 15th time in a 71-20 victory over visiting Defiance.
Seniors Myka Aldrich and Katie Kaufman combined for 26 points on the night in their final regular season go round at the Supreme Court and finished their OG careers with a conference mark of 34-2 and a trio of WBL titles.
Ottawa Glandorf jumped out to an early 13-0 lead in the first period on the backs of triples from Aldrich, Kaufman, Kaitlyn Kimmet, Megan Horstman, and Karsyn Erford on their way to a 32-0 first period lead, the third highest total in a quarter in school history.
“I was glad to see the seniors just having fun and enjoying playing basketball while getting a chance to hit some shots” said OG head coach Troy Yant.
OG opened their lead to 36-0 in the opening moments of the second period on makes by Erford and Aldrich before the Bulldogs sent their first shot of the evening, a triple from Kendallyne Kroeckel with 6:10 to go through the net.
Kroeckel and teammate Alexa Garcia each connected on a shot over the remaining six minutes of play before the buzzer sounded but were unable to cut into the deficit as the Titans amassed a 49-8 halftime lead. Kaufman, a 6’1 senior headed to play at Malone took over in the post in the second eight minute frame and accounted for eight of her second straight 19 point outing against the smaller Bulldog defenders to lead all scorers.
Defiance’s lone score of the third came from Kroeckel once again, this time with 3:06 in the quarter on the last three of her team high eight points.
Freshman guard Gracie Lammers joined Savannah Recker and five of her other teammates in the three point club in the waning seconds of the third to give the Titans a 63-11 advantage.
Titan subs Madison McKee, Calverie Fox, and Grace Kahle helped to slam the door on the senior night victory in the fourth with makes while holding Defiance to four free throws, and a pair of buckets in the last quarter to secure the win.
Next up for the Bulldogs (2-20, 1-8) is an opening round tournament matchup at WBL rival Bath on the 22nd while the Titans will remain off until the 24th at 2pm when they host Elmwood.
“We talked before the game of focusing only on our defense tonight. We set a first half and second half goal for point allowance” said Yant. “We met the goal in the first half and came within a bucket of meeting it in the second half so I was happy with the effort.”
Eleven of the 13 Titans who played in the game scored on the night with three finishing in double figures.
Tonight’s victory moves the #3 ranked Titans to 20-2 on the season and marks the 11th consecutive year in which the program has earned at least 20 victories, and the 16th time overall.
Scoring:
OG (71):
Liv Grothause 2
Karsyn Erford 10
Carlie Brinkman 4
Gracie Lammers 5
Megan Horstman 3
Savannah Recker 3
Madison McKee 4
Katie Kaufman 19
Calverie Fox 2
Myka Aldrich 7
Kaitlyn Kimmet 10
Grace Kahle 2
FT: 2/2
3PT: 9 (Kimmet 2, Erford 2, Lammers, Horstman, Recker, Kaufman, Aldrich)
TO: 5
Defiance (20):
Isabella Rowlison 2
Kendallyne Kroeckel 8
Jamie Rollins 2
Eliza Ramirez 2
Alexa Garcia 6
FT: 4/4
3PT: 4 (Garcia 2, Kroeckel 2)
TO: 27
JV: OG 50-14 (Madison McKee 17pts, Libby Niese 14)