OTTOVILLE – The cast changes from year to year but one thing remains the same; the Ottoville girls basketball team is off to another outstanding start and looks like a force to be reckoned with.
The Big Green wasted little time in taking control of their Putnam County League game with Ft. Jennings Tuesday evening and raced to a 61-20 victory.
Ottoville (4-0, 1-0 PCL) jumped out to a quick 7-0 lead before the Musketeers got on the board when junior Vanessa Wallenhorst connected on a 3-point basket to get Ft. Jennings to within 7-3 midway through the first quarter.
The Big Green responded by closing out the first period on a 9-0 run to grab a 16-3 lead after one stanza.
They continued the onslaught as they opened the second quarter on a 10-0 run and broke the game open as they claimed a 26-3 lead midway through the second period of play.
Man-to-man defense is the calling card of the Ottoville team and Ft. Jennings (0-3, 0-1 PCL) committed 17 first half turnovers against the stifling pressure of the Big Green.
“You just know they are going to make those runs but it’s hard to duplicate what they come at you with in practice.” Ft. Jennings coach Bill Calvelage said. “We need to learn to take of the ball against the contact at this level.”
A 34-9 lead at the break ballooned to 50-10 after three quarters of play and an 11-10 advantage for Ottoville, who were playing mostly jayvees in the final quarter, resulted in the final score.
The Big Green only have 14 players on their varsity and junior varsity rosters and 12 of them scored in the win, led by junior Bridget Landin with a game-high 17 points. Landin got help from Alicia Honigford who finished with 8 points while CJ Kemper added 7 to the Big Green total.
Wallenhorst paced the Ft. Jennings offense with 8 points.
“It feels like things have been clicking, we’ve been together a couple of years now,” Landin said. “The younger girls got to play and were able to get a feel for the varsity level.”
Veteran Ottoville coach Dave Kleman was pleased with both the results and effort from his squad.
“We are trying to develop our bench,” Kleman said. “Our jayvee kids are pretty good and they fit right in and got playing experience and a chance to run our offense. We are balanced and unselfish with good chemistry going on.”
Ft. Jennings finished the contest with 24 turnovers while Ottoville was committing only nine in the game. The Big Green pulled down 30 rebounds compared to 22 for the Musketeers.
Ottoville connected on 20 of 41 from the field in the game for a 45 percent shooting game. Ft. Jennings struggled to an 18 percent shooting game as they could connect on only 6-of-32 from the floor in the game.
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