KALIDA — It’s like a double-edge sword when trying to defend Ottoville.
Inside the paint, opponents have to contend with both 6-foot-2 Abby Siefker and 6-foot Rachel Beining.
And if too much attention is paid down low, then the Big Green can do damage from the perimeter.
Such was the case in Thursday’s Putnam County League matchup between Ottoville and Kalida.
Siefker scored 10 points, had six rebounds and four blocks. Beining added just seven points and had six boards. However, Rachel Turnwald and Nicole Vorst made Kalida pay from the outside, scoring 14 and 11 respectively, to help lead Ottoville to a 51-27 victory in girls basketball at Kalida.
With the victory, Ottoville improves to 10-0 overall and 3-0 in the PCL. Kalida slips to 6-3, 2-1.
Siefker scored only four points in the first half. However, Turnwald ignited the Big Green with 10 first-half points — eight of those coming in the first quarter. Vorst poured in nine points in the first half.
Ottoville led 14-4 at the end of the first quarter and then extended its lead to 29-13 by the halftime break. By the end of the third period, Ottoville’s lead grew to 42-20.
“You’ve got to pick your poison,” Ottoville coach Dave Kleman said. “If you are going to try to stop Abby and Rachel, then our guards are good enough to score and take over the game for us.”
Ottoville’s defensive pressure helped cause 25 Kalida turnovers. In the third quarter, Kalida turned the ball over eight times as Ottoville was able to extend its lead.
“They’re so deep. Any one of their girls can lead them in scoring any night,” Kalida coach Adam Huber said. “It’s kind of like, ‘pick your poison.’ Do you let the girls beat you inside and guard the perimeter?
“We took our chances with (defending) the higher-percentage shots inside. To their credit, Turnwald stepped up and had 10 points in the first half and Vorst stepped up and had a big game for them. I told our girls that I don’t think we could have played much better, defensively, than we did. They just hit shots.”
For the game, Ottoville committed 18 turnovers. The taller Ottoville squad controlled the boards, 30-19.
“I’ll take bigger and little more experienced, right now,” Kleman said. “A couple years down the line, I might take little, and a little bit quicker.”
Ottoville’s defensive pressure held Kalida to just eight field goals for the game. Kalida shot just 23 percent from the field. Ottoville shot 53 percent from the floor.
“There really wasn’t a flow to the game. …It was fairly physical,” Kleman said. “So, when it’s physical like that then it’s kind of hard to get into any flow. I would have liked to been able to run a little more and work the ball more. But these are things we will need to work on to keep getting better.”
