OTTAWA – Ottawa Glandorf clinched their eighth straight 20+ win season with a 46-24 Thursday night Western Buckeye League victory over visiting Kenton at the Supreme Court.
Playing in her final home regular season game OG’s Kelsey Erford ended her teams early offensive futility with a fast break basket to tie the score at 2-2 after a Lindsey Smith basket and helped to push the Titans ahead 7-2 with a pair of free throws.
Kenton’s senior duo of Smith and Makenzie Bays pulled the Wildcats to within a point and into a 7-7 tie on an and-one opportunity with a minute to go before the teams headed into the period buzzer with the score tied.
Though the Wildcats stemmed the offensive tide in the first quarter, the basket by Bays would be their last until a make by Smith with 4:13 in the second stanza in the midst of a Titan run of their own.
Sophomore Chloee Glenn, OG’s leading scorer eight times already this season gave the Titans the last lead they would need on the night with a basket just :22 into the period for a 9-7 advantage and would later add a second basket on her way to a game high 15 points.
Ottawa Glandorf’s pressure defense forced 15 first half Wildcat turnovers and held the visitors to just three points, all from Lindsey Smith to amass a 20-10 lead at the break that saw senior Anna Siefker knock down a triple while teammates Myka Aldrich and Erford added fast break scores.
Just a pair of baskets found their way through the nets for Kenton in the third period, a three point goal by Jenna Manns, and a score by Kaylin Hildreth over five minutes apart while the Titans again found ways to turn miscues into points on their own side of the floor.
Six points from Glenn and four each from the duo of Lily Haselman and Katie Kaufman pushed the OG lead out to 26-10 and into a Kenton timeout early in the period. Junior Ella Okuley’s sixth three pointer of the season gave her squad a 37-13 lead in the waning moments of the quarter as the Titans began to send their starters to the bench.
Over the course of the final eight minutes of play Kenton’s shots began to finally drop from the field and behind the arc as seniors Smith and Keelee Barrett teamed up for five of the nine markers in the quarter to cut the final margin to 46-24 in OG’s favor.
“I thought Kenton did a good job early of limiting us with their defense and keeping pace with us offensively. Eventually our defense was able to significantly limit them to allow us to break away from them. Some of our bench players came in and gave us good rotations, but moving forward we need to work on maintaining consistency” said Titan mentor Troy Yant following the contest.
Kenton (8-10) was led by Lindsey Smith with nine points in the game and will next play on Monday night when they are in action to wrap up WBL play on the road at Shawnee.
OG (20-2) clinched their 14th 20+ win season in school history and eighth straight such year with the victory. Next up for the Titans is a sectional finals date with the winner of the Allen East/Coldwater matchup to take place on Saturday, February 20th, at 7:00 P.M. in a game broadcast live on WZOQ Radio
Scoring:
OG (46):
Kelsey Erford 8
Anna Siefker 3
Lily Haselman 4
Ella Okuley 4
Myka Aldrich 4
Erin Kaufman 2
Katie Kaufman 6
Chloee Glenn 15
3PT: 2 (Okuley, Siefker)
FT: 12/17
TO: 22
Kenton (24):
Ali Harpel 2
Makenzie Bays 3
Kaylin Hildreth 2
Keelee Barrett 3
Tatum Miller 2
Jenna Manns 3
Lindsey Smith 9
3PT: 2 (Barrett, Manns)
FT: 2/4
TO: 28
JV: Kenton 24-16