OTTAWA — Ottawa-Glandorf knows it’s out there. It’s just a matter of unlocking the door.
The Titans (12-1, 4-0 Western Buckeye League) bounced back nicely from their only loss of the season last Saturday night against Findlay by beating Shawnee 72-59 in boys basketball on Friday night.
O-G, ranked No. 8 in Division II, put four players in double figures in the win over Shawnee – Bryce Schroeder with 17 points, Jake Dibel with 16 points and 8 rebounds, Owen Hiegel with 14 points and Jay Kaufman with 13 points and 11 rebounds.
The Titans took control early against Shawnee when they jumped out to a 24-11 lead in the game’s first 11 ½ minutes, helped by the Indians missing 17 of their first 21 shots.
They stretched the lead to 17 points, 57-40, early in the fourth quarter. But Shawnee hung around, cutting the lead to 10 points, twice down the stretch, denying O-G the chance finish it off with the basketball equivalent of serving a couple of aces to end the match.
Ray Manley and Sean McDonald scored 13 points and Johnny Caprella had 10 points off the bench for Shawnee (8-5, 2-2 WBL).
“We got off to a good start like we talked about. That was important for us to bounce back from last weekend where a team kind of jumped on us early,” Ottawa-Glandorf coach Tyson McGlaughlin said.
“We got off to a good start and did a couple of good things. But, unfortunately, it’s kind of the same old thing. We get a lead and we’re just not finishing games off the way we want to,” he said.
“I’d say, like in eight of those games, we’ve been up double digits in the fourth quarter and we just haven’t thrown that haymaker. The really good teams finish those games and make it no contest.
“But it’s mid-January. You don’t want to plateau too early. I think our guys will continue to improve,” McGlaughlin said.
Kaufman said, “We just haven’t been able to knock anybody out completely yet. We’ll get there. It’s early in the season, we don’t want to peak too soon.”
O-G guards Schroeder and Hiegel, who combined for 11 points in a 65-51 loss to Findlay, totaled 31 points between them on Friday night.
Schroeder hit four 3-pointers, including three of them in the second half, and Hiegel, who was the main ball-handler for the Titans, was 3 of 4 on field goals and got to the free throw line for eight of his 14 points.
“We had a hard week of practice. Coach was on us about rebounding, playing harder and finishing games,” Schroeder said.
Ottawa-Glandorf shot 54 percent on field goals (24 of 44). Shawnee finished the game shooting 40 percent (23 of 57) after connecting on only 8 of 28 field goals in the first half.
“I’ve been working on it. I had a good day and I just have to keep working on it,” Schroeder said about his shooting.
Shawnee coach Mark Triplett said, “We haven’t shot the ball very well here in a while. They packed in that zone. We had some decent looks inside and out and couldn’t get them to drop.
“They came out tremendously offensively. It’s hard to beat really, really good teams on the road when you shoot that poorly. When you put yourself in a hole like that to start the game it’s hard to get out of it.”
“Every time I thought we were close, they had an answer for us. That’s what good teams do,” he said.
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