OTTOVILLE — It wasn’t like a weight was lifted. It was more like a wait that was lifted.
No. 8 Ottoville handed No. 1 Minster its first girls basketball loss of the season, 49-46, on Saturday afternoon in what might be the Lady Green’s biggest win so far.
Coming into the game, Ottoville (12-3) had won three games and lost two since Jan. 1 and probably hadn’t been playing up to its own expectations for a while.
Knocking off the No. 1-ranked team in Division IV gave Ottoville hope this could be a spring board to even bigger things.
“It was just a special effort by us for four quarters that we’ve been looking for,” Ottoville coach Dave Kleman said. “We’ve gotten that a couple times this year but not all the time. And that’s what we need to do to progress and get better and make some kind of run here at the end.”
C.J. Kemper scored 18 points to lead Ottoville. Minster (13-1) got 14 points and 10 rebounds from Rosie Westerbeck.
Ottoville has beaten three teams in the Division IV top ten – No. 6 Arlington, No. 9 Wayne Trace and Minster. Its losses have been against Ottawa-Glandorf, ranked No. 1 in Division II; Columbus Grove, ranked No. 8 in Division III; and Bath, a 10-win Division II school.
“It was big. We haven’t finished in the rest of those big games,” Kemper said. “So coming out today and finishing was huge for us.”
Kleman said, “It was really big. It gives us some confidence in what we need to do and how to play to finish those games. We have no shame in those other teams beating us, they’re good teams.”
Ottoville had a 20-16 halftime lead and was up 10 points, 36-26, after three quarters. It led by eight points, 49-41, with 36 seconds to play before Minster fought back to nearly send the game into overtime when a 3-pointer just before the buzzer rimmed out.
The two teams, who both thrive on using pressure defense, combined to produce 51 turnovers – 26 by Ottoville and 25 by Minster.
“Their pressure, being at home in a big game, was a huge deal, putting the pressure on us. And I thought we were a little timid early. But that credit goes to Ottoville for putting the pressure on us,” Minster coach Mike Wiss said.
“They did to us what we do to other teams. And we did to them what they do to other teams,” he said.
Minster tied the game 22-22 with four minutes left in the third quarter and had a chance to seize the momentum a minute later when Ottoville point guard Brooke Mangas went to the bench with her fourth foul. And the Green’s leading scorer, Bridget Landin, was already on the bench with foul trouble.
With those two out of the game, senior guard Alicia Honigford scored six of her eight points in the final two minutes of the third quarter on three consecutive possessions, including one on a steal and another on an in-bounds play.
“I just knew I had to stay calm and everyone would work together,” Honigford said. “Our defense was what we really needed and we finally got it back this game.”
Kleman said, “I thought Alicia Honigford had one of her better games for us. She did a great job and went to the basket and rebounded. It wasn’t just offense that she did.”
Ottoville’s hard work was nearly undone by 5 for 15 free throw shooting in the fourth quarter.
“If we make our free throws like we normally do for the year (73 percent) that game is over,” Kleman said.
After four different Ottoville players had missed five consecutive free throws late in the fourth quarter, Mangas reversed the trend by hitting three of four attempts for a 48-41 lead with 39 seconds to play.
Kemper rebounded Mangas’ miss on the fourth of those shots, was fouled and hit one of two free throws for an eight-point lead with 36 seconds to play.
But Minster wasn’t done yet. Ali Borgerding, who hadn’t scored in the first 31 ½ minutes, hit a three-pointer with 23 seconds to play and a two-pointer to cut the lead to 49-46 inside of 10 seconds to play.
After Landin missed two free throws with seven seconds to play, Borgerding got a good look at a three-pointer, but it was just slightly off target.
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