KALIDA – Sometimes it only takes one run to make the difference in a game.
Kalida’s 10-0 run to start the second quarter proved to set the tone in Kalida’s 55-41 nonconference victory over Delphos St. John’s in girls basketball Monday night.
After St. John’s slipped out with a 13-11 lead by the end of a see-saw first quarter, Kalida then scored 10 unanswered points to begin the second stanza, and never saw its lead get below seven points the rest of the way.
With the win, Kalida improves to 3-6 overall, while St. John’s drops to 4-5.
Kalida shot a blistering 61 percent from the field. St. John’s countered with a solid 52-percent shooting performance.
In that second quarter, St. John’s made just 1-of-5 shots from the floor, and committed five turnovers. For the game, the Blue Jays turned the ball over just 10 times.
Kalida had three players score in double figures. Taylor Lucke led the Wildcats with 13 points, five assists and two steals. Sarah Klausing, a 5-foot, 11-inch post player, scored 12 points and pulled down seven rebounds. Lauren Langhals added 11 points, three assists and three steals for the Wildcats.
“We were pretty balanced tonight, which is good to see – not having one with 20 (points) and everybody else with a basket here and a basket there,” Kalida coach Adam Huber said. “That’s really good to see. That means we’re moving the ball well, we’re sharing. We’re making the right reads and the girls made shots.”
For St. John’s, Madilynn Schulte and Betty Vorst each scored 11 points. Vorst recorded all of her points in the second half.
Kalida put a great deal of emphasis on guarding Schulte, a 5-7 playmaker in the frontcourt for the Blue Jays.
“We know we have to focus our defense on her,” Huber said. “She scored in double digits, but I thought she had to work for them. We tried throwing multiple people at her. We were trying to switch and not give her any open looks. I was really, really pleased with that.”
Kalida dominated the boards, 20-11.
“We said before the game that we thought we had an advantage inside the post with Sarah (Klausing),” Huber said. “(In the) first quarter, they hit some shots. We broke down a little bit, defensively. But overall, this was by far the best scouting-report defensive game we’ve had. I’ve been trying to preach to the girls to do that for longer stretches at a time.
“And I think we took care of the ball better tonight (12 turnovers). I wanted to take care of the ball and rebound the ball, and I think we did that much better tonight.”
At the free throw line, Kalida shot 9-of-13 (69 percent), while St. John’s was 8-of-11 (73 percent) from the stripe.
“We were not aggressive,” longtime St. John’s coach Dan Grothouse said about the second quarter. “We didn’t stay in our lane, defensively. We allowed them to do whatever they wanted to do. We didn’t make it difficult for them at all, especially in the second quarter. They put the ball where they wanted. “We can’t have a quarter like that against these kinds of teams. We have to play good solid basketball. When you go into a drought like that, you dig yourself a big hole.”
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