OTTAWA – Six three point goals by five different players Thursday night helped pace an Ottawa Glandorf blow out victory against WBL rival Bath 53-36.
Freshman guard Kaelyn Grothouse started the Titans triple attack to open the game as she knocked down a shot from beyond the arc to put the hosts on top 3-0.
Ottawa Glandorf raced out to a 5-0 lead on a basket by Myka Aldrich halfway through the quarter before the Wildcats found their first marker, a free throw from senior Ava Craddock with 3:16 left in the first. Craddock trimmed the OG lead to 7-4 after a Lily Haselman bucket when she connected from deep with 1:56 for the last Bath points of the quarter.
Leading 9-4 to open the second period thanks to a Katie Kaufman buzzer beater to end the first the Titans expanded their lead by forcing 14 first half turnovers and utilizing three pointers from Aldrich, Maggie Verhoff, and Chloe Schroeder to amass a 23-8 lead with 3:12 to go before the half.
Bath struggled to knock down shots against the OG pressure and length and found themselves behind 20-5 and quickly within 20-8 as Craddock struck from the free throw line and eventually deep to quell a nearly six minute span without a basket.
Baskets by Bath’s Elena Oliver with :29 remaining and a Haselman make as time expired sent the teams into their locker rooms with a 25-10 OG advantage.
Entering play Thursday night Ava Craddock’s career total sat at 990 points scored and moved up to 998 heading into the third quarter of action that saw her account for all but one of her teams baskets.
Craddock reached the 1,000 point plateau with 4:55 remaining in the third as she deposited a short hook shot over the top of two would be defenders to pull Bath to within 29-15 and become the newest Wildcat to accomplish the feat.
Utilizing emerging bench player Kaitlyn Kimmet in his rotation, Troy Yant found scoring off his bench in the third period as the 5’9 freshman knocked down the first and second three point goals of her career within the span of a minute of game action to push the hosts ahead 37-15. Kimmet finished the game with a career high eight points after sinking a pair of free throws in the final minutes.
Anne Oliver accounted for a triple of her own and a pair of free throws with 2.5 seconds before the horn to cut the visiting teams deficit to 37-17.
Though the early quarters resembled a slugfest the fourth quarter resembled something closer to a Fast and Furious movie that saw the Wildcats outscore the Titans 19-16 behind the trio of Craddock, Elena Oliver, and Rachel Clark. Bath nearly trimmed the lead into single digits late in the fourth quarter but the OG attack of Katie Kaufman, Erin Kaufman, and an 8 of 12 performance from the free throw line helped keep the blue and gold ahead on their way to a 53-36 victory.
Ava Craddock led Bath (9-4, 3-2) and all scorers with 17 points. The Wildcats return to action on Tuesday, January 18th as they travel to Delphos to battle the St. Johns Blue Jays and attempt to become the 3rd team in OHSAA history to record 900 program wins. Only Berlin Hiland and Fort Loramie have accomplished the feat in girls basketball in Ohio previously.
Ottawa Glandorf (9-3, 5-0) remains as one of two unbeatens (Shawnee) in the Western Buckeye League and will next be in action on Saturday afternoon at 2:20 P.M. as part of the Classic In The Country showcase taking on Tri-Valley. That game can be heard live on WZOQ Radio.
Balanced scoring from eight players paced OG but was led by nine from Kaelyn Grothouse on the night.
“This was a big win for us, it’s always hard to beat Bath and stay unbeaten in the WBL, that was very important for us. Our bench players seemed to provide a efficient and timely buckets which were even more important because Bath had done such a great job limiting our post players production. I was especially proud of Myka Aldrich who drew the hardest defensive assignment but also contributed early to our offensive efforts. Hopefully we can use this game to start building our second half of the season rotations and sub partners” said Titan boss Troy Yant.
Scoring:
OG (53):
Chloe Schroeder 5
Lily Haselman 7
Maggie Verhoff 3
Kaelyn Grothouse 9
Myka Aldrich 8
Kaitlyn Kimmet 8
Erin Kaufman 7
Katie Kaufman 6
FG: 19/37
3PT: 6/17 (Kimmet 2, Schroeder, Verhoff, Aldrich)
FT: 9/16
TO: 11
Bath (36):
Ava Craddock 17
Rachel Clark 6
Claire Foust 2
Anne Oliver 5
Elena Oliver 6
FG: 13/36
3PT: 5/18 (Craddock 3, Clark, A. Oliver)
FT: 5/11
TO: 19
JV: OG 52-7