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Ottoville girls survive in OT
A good tuneup for the Ottoville Lady Green, finishing 10th in the final Division 4 poll and a share of the Putnam County League crown; the host Elida Lady Bulldogs appeared to be the perfect opponent at the Elida Fieldhouse Thursday evening in a makeup game.
Perhaps not a lot of fans thought this would be much of a game but someone forgot to remind the Lady ’Dawgs they weren’t supposed to be in this one especially at the end of the fourth quarter, let alone in overtime. That is the amount of time it took Ottoville to avert the dreaded upset, as the Lady Green prevailed 62-58.
“It wasn’t the prettiest but it is good win and helps our confidence to win a close one like this right before tournament,” stated Ottoville head coach David P. Kleman. “Our guards handled the game in overtime and I was well pleased with the 8-of-9 free throws to seal the win.”
Elida let everyone know they came to play and proved there was plenty of fight in these ’Dawgs, racing out to a 6-0 lead in the first minute of play. Chelsea Matthias started the action with a layup, followed by back-to-back baskets by Marianne Conrad. The bleeding was stopped at the 6-minute mark by Ottoville’s Erica Vorst’s two quick buckets. Elida’s Mathias answered with a 3 and bumping the first quarter lead to 9-4. Krystal Markward canned a breakaway la-up for the Lady Green and Quinesha Dinkins hit two freebies for the Lady ’Dawgs for an 11-6 advantage for Elida. An Erika Kaufman layup followed by a Kelly Warris 3 at the 1-minute mark saw Elida still on top with the largest lead of the quarter. A baseline drive by Markward at the buzzer gave the Lady Green a more manageable deficit, 14-10 after one stanza.
The second quarter started a little slower until Elida’s leading scorer, Rosie Paris (16), drove to put them up 16-10 at 5:30. Ottoville’s leading scorer, Courtney Schimmoeller (21), answered with a big 3 and Markward followed with two free tosses, closing the gap to 16-15. Paris put back an errant shot but Markward and Schimmoeller traded steals, assists and layups to give the visitors their first lead, 19-18, at the 2-minute mark. Another steal by Trisha Honigford and an assist to Gina Beining with one minute remaining in the half gave the Lady Green its largest lead of the half, 21-18. Elida still had plenty of firepower as Kearston Smith hit a layup and banked in a 3 to take a 23-21 lead into the locker room.
The third quarter was a character-building one for the visitors. Elida stretched the lead to 33-25 with just 2:30 left. After what proved to be a quality timeout by Kleman with two minutes showing, Kaufman nailed two free throws, Honigford a driving layup, followed by a Schimmoeller 3-ball and a layup at the buzzer by Beining to shorten the deficit to 37-34.
The fourth quarter saw the Lady ’Dawgs stretch the lead back to 8 — 42-34 — on a Paris layup at 6:30. Again, Ottoville showed there was no quit in them: Markward recorded a 3 the old-fashioned way with a bucket and free throw, followed by a Beining layin and yet another 3 from Schimmoeller that tied the contest at 42. A Schimmoeller layin off a Vorst assist knotted the contest at 50 with 1 1/2 minutes remaining. Elida had possession under its own basket with six seconds remaining but couldn’t get a shot off.
The extra period saw Ottoville jump on the ’Dawgs with six straight points and their 8-of-9 charity tosses — Markward 4-of-4, Schimmoeller 2-for-2 and Kaufman 2-for-3 — sealed the win for the Lady Green.
Ottoville was led by Schimmoeller with 21, Markward with 15 and Beining 10. The Lady Green finishes the regular season at 16-4 and waits for the Fort Jennings/Antwerp winner at Wayne Trace Feb. 24.
Elida was paced by Paris with 16, Warris 11 and Conrad 10. They finish regular-season play at 9-11.
In JV action, Jeff Schimmoeller’s Lady Green ends the season on a high note, knocking off a pesky Lady Dawg squad 40-34 and finishing with a 17-3 record. Freshman Mallory Eberle led Ottoville with 15. Elida was led by junior Heather Jacobs with 13.
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