OTTAWA — No excuses. No suspense.
Findlay knocked Ottawa-Glandorf from the ranks of the unbeaten with a 65-51 boys basketball win over the Titans on Saturday night at O-G.
And it was clear from the opening minutes which team was in control. The upper hand and the hot hand both belonged to Findlay.
The Trojans (7-4) jumped out to a 21-8 after one quarter, were up 36-21 at half and led by as many as 22 points in the second half before easing up a little late in the game.
Kyle Nunn scored 31 points, hit 14 of 17 shots and connected on eight shots in a row in one stretch that began in the second quarter and didn’t end until the fourth quarter.
Drew Hapner scored 12 points and Tre Miller had 11 points for the Trojans, who shot 51 percent (27 of 53) on field goals.
Ottawa-Glandorf (11-1) was led by Jake Dible with 17 points. Jay Kaufman, who came into the game averaging 19.8 points a game, picked up three fouls in the game’s first 10 minutes and was held to seven points.
“They played really well, tip your cap to them. We ran into a buzz saw. Everything we threw at them, they had an answer for. We dug ourselves a hole we couldn’t get out of tonight,” Ottawa-Glandorf coach Tyson McGlaughlin said.
“When they play like that, they are pretty darn good,” he said. “But I told the guys this has been a long time coming. There have been three games in a row where I don’t think we played well. We’ve played in spurts and we’ve done enough to get by. But when you play against really good teams and talented individuals, they can really make you pay.
“You’re going to be in for a long night and tonight was a long night,” McGlaughlin said. “We rely on Jay to do so much and when he went out we had the deer in the headlight look.”
The Titans came into Saturday night’s game ranked No. 3 in Division II in The Associated Press state basketball poll.
Findlay coach Jim Rucki was mostly satisfied with the way the Trojans played, except possibly for the last few minutes.
“We’ve got a chance on a good shooting night to play with anybody,” Rucki said. “Other than getting a little sloppy with the lead late, there’s not much to complain about.”
Ottawa-Glandorf shot 35 percent on field goals (16 of 45) and turned the ball over 17 times, 11 of those in the first two quarters. Findlay had 12 turnovers, but half of those came in the fourth quarter. The Trojans had a 25-24 rebounding edge.
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