Columbus Grove’s Lauryn Auchmuty drives between Kalida’s Andrea Burgei (left) and Malia Romes during Saturday’s Division IV district final at Ottawa-Glandorf. See more high school basketball photos at LimaScores.com.
Richard Parrish | The Lima News
OTTAWA — Sometimes it is not the shot you take but the pass you make and that proved to be the case in Columbus Grove’s thrilling 33-29 victory over Putnam County League rival Kalida in the Division IV district final Saturday night.
With the win, Columbus Grove improves to 17-8. The Bulldogs are making their third straight trip to the regionals where they will face Hopewell Loudon at Elida on Thursday. Kalida ends its year with a 18-7 record.
In the regular season, Kalida beat Columbus Grove, 35-34.
“I was really proud of our seniors. The first half of the game was shaky for a while and Kalida got off to a nice start and I thought we were a little out of rhythm and made some bad decisions but I we were only down by four at halftime,” Columbus Grove head coach Brian Schroeder said. “We had been a similar position so we talked about maintaining poise and get a good shot every time down.
“This was hard-fought game with two PCL teams that are familiar with each other, being in the same league, but also running into each in tournament for I don’t know how many years so we knew it would be a defensive battle, and not a whole lot of points scored because we are so familiar with each other.”
Tied at 29 with a little more than a minute to go, Columbus Grove had the ball and looked to take the last shot and everyone in the gym knew Bulldog Lauren Auchmuty was going to take the last shot. As the clock began winding down into the teens, the sophomore sensation made her move towards the basket and once she did the Wildcats collapsed on her. Auchmuty, sensing the double team, dished it off to an open Nicole Nesby under the basket who laid it in with 12 seconds left on the clock to put Columbus Grove up 31-29.
Kalida, after a timeout with 5.3 seconds, had a shot at either tying or winning the game and the Wildcats drew up a 3-point shot that they executed to perfection, unfortunately for the Wildcats, the shot fell short and Columbus Grove snatched the rebound.
“My intentions were to shoot it and do a little jump shot but as soon as Nicole’s player came out I immediately dumped the ball down to her because I knew she was going to have a better shot than what I was going to get,” Auchmuty said. “They are really tough and they know how to play really good defense.”
Auchmuty finished with a game-high 23 points as she connected on five treys in the game with two coming in the fourth quarter. She scored 16 of her points in the second half and was 8-for-8 from the free throw line.
“We knew she (Auchmuty) was really good,” Kalida head coach Adam Huber said. “I thought we did pretty well on her but she hit some tough shots, some step back three’s. I said to our coaches if we held her to 20 and we held everyone else under 10 I’d feel pretty good. Well, I was wrong. But that is what good players do.
“Obviously we are disappointed and we had opportunities at our end but at the end of the day we executed our last play perfectly and we had a couple of options of it and we liked the kick-out three better and you are not going to ask for a better opportunity to win a game. We had it in our hands with a chance to win it but we didn’t make the play. Congrats to them.”
Making Auchmuty’s accomplishment more impressive was the fact that she was saddled with foul trouble as she received her second foul with 1:18 in the first quarter and her third with 2:34 left in the first half. Schroeder had to continually pull his guard in and out of the game to maximize her effectiveness.
“We need her on the floor as much as possible,” Schroeder said. “We were trying to sneak minutes here and there and surviving with her on the bench and that was alright but at a certain point you have to have your best player on the court and let her play smart and hope shes helps your team to a win.”
No Kalida player broke the double-digit barrier in scoring.
Columbus Grove shot 34 percent from the floor and Kalida shot 28 percent.
Reach Jose Nogueras at 567-242-0468.
