Delphos Jefferson’s Lyv Lindeman puts up a shot against Crestview’s Macy Kulwicki during Thursday night’s game at Crestview.
Richard Parrish | The Lima News
CONVOY — Prior to its game against Crestview, Delphos Jefferson head coach Denise Lindeman told Rylynn Marquis that she would play a big role in the game.
The senior Wildcat, who did not even start the game, hit three clutch 3-pointers and the Wildcats rode its tenacious defensive effort to a 41-37 victory over the Knights in a big Northwest Conference contest Thursday night.
“That was a great team win,” Lindeman said. “They all contributed to this win. Every single one of them. I can’t say enough about our girls. They came out and they battled and they were confident.”
Marquis trio of treys came in a nip and tuck game that went down to the final minutes.
“I told Ry that ‘you are going to be the difference maker and she was. I called it before the game. She is difference maker because she is a shooter.’
With the win, Delphos remains undefeated in the NWC with a 5-0 mark and the Wildcats improve to 15-1 overall. Crestview falls to 11-4 on the season and 4-2 in conference play.
Crestview head coach Mark Gregory said,”They are a really good team and well coached and physical and they just make things so difficult. You can run anything and it was tough tonight. I was really pleased with our girls and they played their hearts out. We had a tough time knocking down shots tonight.”
Defense was the name of the game throughout this contest as both teams put in tremendous defensive efforts to keep the other team from going on any major scoring run and going into the final eight minutes, Jefferson owned a 31-28 advantage.
In the final stanza, Delphos got a big steal from Lyv Lindeman, who led the team with 18 points, with a big steal to give the Wildcats a 35-33 lead. However, with 2:12 left in the game, Cali Gregory gave the Knights the lead 37-36 with 2:33 left. However on the next trip down the court, Marquis popped a trey to regain the lead for the Wildcats with 2:12 to go and some clutch free throw shooting enabled Jefferson to hold on for the win.
IN addition to Marquis delivering, Jefferson’s Lauren French also delivered and spearheaded the team’s defensive effort. Despite scoring only four points, the Wildcat post player had five blocked shots and 13 rebounds.
“Lauren French battled in that paint and she did not back down,” Lindeman said. “She took some lumps down there but she was awesome.”
For Crestview, Cali Gregory was the Knights’ main force on offense as she scored a game-high 19 points. The Knight junior had 11 points at halftime but was limited to eight in the final 16 points She was the lone Knight to score in double digits.
Gregory was phenomenal from the beyond the 3-point line as she hit five treys including some from way beyond the arc.
“I told the girls we are a halfcourt man defensive team,” Lindeman said. “We are not going to change and that is who we are.”We played great halfcourt defense and I thought we did a great job and Cali had some awesome shots. She is a shooter and I thought our girls did a good job on Cali even though she had some great shots.’
Lindeman added that the key was to contain Gregory and not let her beat the Wildcats as she rotated a number of players on the standout Knight junior who often saw two and three red jerseys around her when she touched the ball.
Reach Jose Nogueras at 567-242-0468.
