Ottawa Glandorf’s Grant Schroeder shoots against Cardinal Stritch’s Breon Hicks, left, and Kam Hughes durng a Wednesday night Division III regional semifinal at Bowling Green State University.
Richard Parrish | The Lima News
BOWLING GREEN – Cardinal Stritch stayed with Ottawa-Glandorf for one quarter but the Titans dominated the final three quarters on their way to a 62-43 win in a Division III boys basketball regional semifinal at Bowling Green’s Stroh Center on Wednesday night.
O-G (23-3) will now play Wayne Trace at 1 p.m. Saturday for a trip to the Division III state tournament. The Raiders defeated Canton Central Catholic 34-29 in the other semifinal at BGSU on Wednesday night.
Colin White led O-G’s scoring with 15 points. Hunter Stechschulte had 14 points, Caden Erford scored 12 points and Theo Maag had 11 points and 6 rebounds.
“I think it all starts with the energy level we bring. I thought our intensity really set the tone of how hard our guys played. We hit some shots early and then we were able to get to spots where we can be successful,” Ottawa-Glandorf coach Tyson McGlaughlin said.
“I just think it was a testament to our guys and how hard they played,” he said.
O-G came out hot at the start of the game when it hit its first five shots, including three 3-pointers, to go ahead 13-4 just over three minutes into the game.
Stritch also started fast, hitting 6 of its first 8 shots, and was down only two points, at 16-14, late in the first quarter.
But from there the Titans went on an 18-4 run to take a 34-18 lead with 3 ½ minutes left in the first half.
After all the offensive fireworks neither team scored in the final 3:24 of the first half and 34-18 was the halftime score.
“I think our defensive presssure really changed. We put a lot more pressure on them and we kept hitting shots,” Stechschulte said about the Titans taking control in the second quarter.
Ottawa-Glandorf shot 56 percent in the first two quarters (14 of 25). Stritch shot 44 percent (8 of 18) but dropped off dramatically in the second quarter when it hit only 2 of 10 shots. O-G also had a 16-8 rebounding edge in the first half.
McGlaughlin said O-G’s approach didn’t change after it got a big lead. “We are who we are. Our guys are going to come after you. Our guys don’t know anything else. They understand when they step on the court they’ve got to play hard, they’ve got to pick people up fullcourt and that’s the expectation,” he said.
“If we’re down five or up 20 points the mindset on the defensive end is to create as much havoc as we possibly can.”
Since 2000, Ottawa-Glandorf has been a state champion three times (2004, 2008, 2013), a state runner-up once (2022), a state semifinalist twice (2012, 2021) and has played in a regional nine other times.
Wayne Trace 34,
Canton Central Catholic 29
Wayne Trace (21-6) won Wednesday night’s first regional semifinal at the Stroh Center in a game in which it held the lead for the final 13 minutes, 16 seconds but never led by more than four points until the last 1:12.
Kyle Stoller led the Raiders with 18 points and Brooks Laukhuf had 11 points. Finley Stewart, who hit three 3-pointers off the bench, led Canton Central (16-10) with 11 points.
Wayne Trace stuggled to get inside early against Canton Central Catholic’s 3-2 zone and was behind 16-15 at halftime.
“That’s a zone we haven’t seen before. Most 3-2 zones they cover the baseline. This one covered the
top,” Wayne Trace coach Jim Linder said. “When we finally did get it in there, they were really strong kids. It’s not an easy zone to attack. At halftime, we made a commitment that we were going to go inside.”
Wayne Trace led 32-29 with 12 seconds to play and Canton Central Catholic got what it wanted when the Raiders missed the front end of two one-and-ones with 12 seconds and 10 seconds left on the clock.
But Wayne Trace got the rebound on the first miss and the second was a held ball situation with the arrow pointing in Wayne Trace’s direction.
After that, Wayne Trace clinched the win on a bucket by Laukhuf on an in-bounds play.
