Ottawa-Glandorf’s Colin White releases a shot against Spencerville’s Carder Orr during Saturday’s Division III district final at Lima Senior. See more high school basketball photos at LimaScores.com.
Richard Parrish | The Lima News
LIMA — One small tweak for Ottawa-Glandorf. One big win for the Titans.
Despite being down, 20-10, in the second quarter, Spencerville looked to garner some momentum and when Owen Sensabaugh hit a trey it appeared this was the spark Spencerville was looking for to jumpstart the offense. However, before the Bearcats could capitalize on the shot, Titan head coach Tyson McGlaughlin called for a timeout and made a minor defensive adjustment and that led to a major shift as the Titans reeled off the next 15 points to help Ottawa-Glandorf grab control of the game and defeat Spencerville, 70-51, in the Division III district final Saturday.
“We thought we were getting away from some of the things we were doing and we were getting a little roll there but we had a couple of guys sucking air and if our guys are tired it is a good chance those other guys were so we made a little tweak to our press and try to give Caden a little breather there and we were able to go out there and finish that quarter strong,” McGlaughlin said. “
The Titans advance to the regionals to face the winner of Huron/Cardinal Stritch at 8 p.m. Wednesday at Bowling Green State University. Spencerville finishes its year at 21-3.
Another addition to the defensive plan was to limit Josh Henline, the Northwest Player of the Year, and Dylan Smith and the Titans accomplished that by limiting the two to a combined 12 points. Henline scored two points in the first three quarters and Smith scored one basket.
“First and foremost our guys did a great job of stepping to the challenge of covering Smith and Henline because those guys are really, really good basketball players and we put Collin on Henline and that is a tall task. He can really play and Collin rose to the challenge. The key to the game was locking him up. I thought he did a fantastic job.
“I thought it was a credit to our team because I felt that they really bought into the little things and executed that for 32 minutes today.
The pivotal second quarter saw the Bearcats go 1 of 8 from the floor. Titan Hunter Stechschulte, who was one of three Titans to score in double-digits, poured in all 10 of his points in the second quarter.
By halftime, the Titans led 35-13.
Not helping Spencerville’s cause was Carter Orr, who finished with 10 points, saddled with early foul trouble.
“When he went out we weren’t as good,” coach Sensabaugh said. “We kind of got careless with the ball. We had some open looks that we did not make. We just didn’t play very well in the second quarter. They are really good and they were on fire. They were way better than we were today.
“The second quarter just got away from us. They hit some shots. It didn’t help they banked that three at the end of the first and kind of gave them some momentum. I don’t think their pressure bothered us too much but we couldn’t get a shot to go down, and the more we missed the tighter the guys got and got loose for some three’s and got comfortable when the lead got away.”
The Titans, who hit 14 treys for the game, were on fire in final stanza to quell any chance of a Spencerville comeback by hitting nine of those in the final 16 minutes.
O-G’s Collin White led all scorers with 27 points, connected of five 3-pointers, including a bank-buzzer beater at the end of the first quarter and a trio of treys in the third stanza. Caden Erford added 10 points and Theo Maag, who scored the team’s first six points, ended up with eight and eight rebounds.
Spencerville’s Owen Sensabaugh finished with 12 points.
Coach Sensabaugh admits the loss stings right now but said he reminded his team of all the accomplishments the Bearcats achieved this season.
“As bad it feels right now to lose a game like that, and the way we lost, it still doesn’t take away the fact that we accomplished a couple of things,” coach Sensabaugh said. “We won the league championship. We got to this point and that is where we wanted to be but it is going to sting for a little bit.”
For the Titans, McGlaughlin said the team is playing some of its best basketball but there is still more to accomplish.
“I am just proud of them,” he said. ” The expectations here are always high but I think our guys embrace it and they understand the challenge at hand, and they don’t take anything for granted. They came out to practices before Bluffton earlier in the week that were some of our best practices of the year. They saw how well Spencerville played on Wednesday night and I think that fired our guys up. I think they took it as a personal challenge. I am just happy. I am happy to get another week with them and move on but we are definitely not satisfied.”
