LIMA — The offenses never let up in Ottoville’s 74-65 boys basketball win over Temple Christian on Friday night.
Even during halftime, people were taking their shots.
After a first half in which the Big Green hit seven 3-pointers and Temple Christian also connected on seven shots from behind the line, the halftime fans contest was dozens of contestants lobbing soft rubber balls from their seats, with the ones whose attempts stopped rolling closest to the center circle winning pizzas.
It was a night the ball was always in the air and accuracy paid off.
Logan Kemper scored 25 points – all but four of them in the first half – and Nick Moorman had 23 points – all but two of those in the second half – to lead Ottoville in its season opener. Ryan Bendele had 12 points, all on 3-pointers, as the Big Green collected 10 of them overall.
Noah Howell’s 22 points led Temple Christian (0-1). Seth Hohlbein scored 20 points and Brody Bowman had 14 points.
Ottoville shot 53 percent on field goals (25 of 47), including 7 of 11 on 3-pointers in the first half. Temple Christian made 49 percent of its shots (22 of 45).
“We shot it well tonight. We shot well in the preseason,” Ottoville coach Todd Turnwald said.
“They (Moorman and Kemper) were our two leading scorers last year, so we fully expected them to come out and do it. Maybe I didn’t expect Logan to have 21 at half, but we’ll definitely take it. It was just a fun game,” he said.
Ottoville is coming off a 3-20 season but is optimistic this season after taking some hard knocks with a very young lineup a year ago.
“We played a lot of sophomores last year. That’s a tough challenge. We’re still young (one senior on the roster). We knew we were going to get better with time. It was just a matter of getting a year older. We competed at times last year but we were just so inexperienced. This year, we have a better idea of what it takes,” Turnwald said.
Temple Christian coach Bruce Bowman said, “I give them a lot of credit for coming out and shooting that well early in the season. I thought our guys fought and fought and fought and stayed in the game until fairly late in it. And then there were two or three possessions where they were able to build the lead up to about eight points.
“Offensively, we executed pretty well. Noah, Seth and Brody all had their moments. Defensively, we can’t really be too pleased. We gave up too many points and the field goal percentage against us was too good. But part of that obviously goes to them,” he said.
Ottoville led 37-34 at halftime and 54-50 after three quarters. The lead grew to 10 points, 63-53, with 3:20 to play on a drive to the hoop and a free throw by Moorman, and the Big Green was in control the rest of the way.
