BATH TOWNSHIP – The Lima Central Catholic girls basketball team has been looking all season for someone to step up and compliment the scoring of University f Findlay bound Madison Stolly
The T-Birds hung around and hung around while able to control the tempo of their game with Bath Wednesday night in the McDonalds Holiday Tournament before a couple of “someones” stepped up and the result was a 48-41 win for the T-Birds over the Wildkittens.
LCC (4-5) jumped out to a quick 7-0 lead to open the game before Bath responded and grabbed the lead after one period of play at 10-8.
Bath (5-3) was playing a 2-3 zone defense in an effort to keep Stolly out of the paint and thus limit her ability to drive to the basket.
“We didn’t stop anything all night long,” Bath coach Greg Mauk said. “We tried different defenses with different defenders but just couldn’t keep it out of the lane.”
LCC was content to take their time against the zone and trailed only 18-14 going to the half-time break.
The T-Birds began their comeback thanks to a big 3-point basket by Emma Baumgartner that got them to with-in 25-24 midway through the third stanza.
LCC closed out the quarter on a 7-2 run, thanks to another triple by Baumgartner at the buzzer, to grab a 31-27 lead heading to the fourth quarter and then opened the final period of play with a 10-2 run to open up a 41-29 lead.
Bath never gave up but the LCC lead was too big to overcome and the T-Birds outscored the Wildkittens 17-14 in the last quarter to account for the final margin of victory.
“We finally had other girls hitting shots tonight,” LCC coach Katie Krieg said. “Our defensive effort was very smart but we kind of struggled with rebounds in the first half but cleaned that up in the second half. It is always a good win against Bath and now we get to face undefeated Minster.”
Stolly led LCC with a game-high 18 point effort while Samantha Koenig chipped in with 15 points, including nine points in the fourth quarter. Josie Mohler added 7 points and Baumgartner totaled six for the T-Birds.
“We tried to press them but got nothing out of it,” Mauk said. “It was lackluster performance on our part but give credit to LCC for doing what they needed to do to win.”
Bath was led in scoring by Heidi Craddock with 17 points while Bailey Dackin contributed 10 points to the Wildkittens scoring total.
Minster 54, Bellevue 50
The opening game of the tournament saw the Wildcats extend their record to 7-0 as they knocked off Bellevue, who fell to 7-2 on the season with the loss.
Minster had a big lead most of the contest until Bellevue made a late run by outscoring the Wildcats 26-12 in the fourth quarter.
Minster got a big 29-point game from Rosie Westerbeck while Bellevue got 16 points from Casey Sartoro and 11 points by Jenna Strayer.
Bath and Bellevue will face off at 6 p.m. tonight in the consolation game before Minster and LCC meet for the tournament title at approximately 7:30 p.m.
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