Ottoville’s Landon Horstman, right, watches as his shot goes into the hoop over the defensive efforts by Bath’s Logan Markley on Saturday.
David Trinko | The Lima News
BATH TOWNSHIP — When Ottoville hit back-to-back 3-pointers to open Saturday’s game at Bath, it would’ve been easy to think the outside sharpshooters would be the stars of the night.
Instead, the two starters inside the paint did the dirty work, combining for 34 points in Ottoville’s 61-44 win.
“Our wings do a very good job of getting us the ball in the post, especially when we’re getting open,” said Landon Horstman, who scored 18 points and pulled down 12 rebounds in the game.
Seven of those rebounds for the 6-foot-4 junior were of the defensive variety, kick-starting the Ottoville offense, which connected on 52.4% of its shots Saturday night.
“He was absolutely everywhere on the defensive end, especially on the glass,” Ottoville coach Keith Utendorf said. “I’m really proud of him, because he’s a young guy that came along last year towards the end. We like the trajectory that we’ve got, not only with him but the rest of our guys as we continue to develop.
The Big Green had four players in double figures, with 6-foot-3 senior Keaton Schnipke adding 15 and Jace Langhals (6-2, senior) and Michael Turnwald (5-10, senior) each tallying 10.
Ottoville (3-0) got out to an 8-0 lead in the first two minutes of the game, and the Wildcats (0-3) could never quite claw back into it, falling behind 22-8 at the end of the first quarter.
“The first quarter, we were down so much,” Bath coach Kirk Looser said. “The next three quarters, we pretty much played them even.”
Bath, which hit 42.1% of its shots Saturday, had pulled within eight points in the third quarter. Bath forward Jaxon Foster, who celebrated his birthday on Saturday, hit back-to-back 3-pointers to pull his team that close for the first time since the first quarter. Foster finished with a team-high 15 points, followed by Logan Markley’s 13 points.
“I think we started attacking the basket a little more, instead of dribbling around that 3-point line,” Looser said. “We actually made some nice cuts there.”
Then Ottoville went back to what worked, namely feeding the inside guys. Schnipke scored six of his 15 points in the fourth quarter.
“Landon was kind of taking up all their attention,” Schnipke said. “So if you open up some lanes, the guards are getting in and you’re moving the ball in and out, then the lanes really opened up for me.”
The Big Green, who play in the Putnam County League mostly with other Division IV schools, were happy to see how they stacked up against a Division II opponent like Bath.
“I’d put our nonleague schedule up with anybody’s in Division IV because of the teams we play each weekend,” Utendorf said. “… I feel like that’s part of the reason why we get better over the course of the year, because of the teams that we play. Obviously Bath is just another one of those teams we respect.”
Ottoville 61, Bath 44
Ottoville 22 15 10 14 — 61
Bath 8 13 14 9 — 44
OTTOVILLE
Jace Langhals 10, Garrett Trentman 3, Landon Horstman 19, Michael Turnwald 10, Ashton Miller 2, Keaton Schnipke 15. Totals: 22 4 13-18 — 61.
BATH
Trey Crawford 7, Logan Markley 13, Zavier Tickle 9, Jaxon Foster 15. Totals: 16 6 6-8 -44.
3-pointers: O-Turnwald 2, Trentman 1, Schnipke 1. B-Foster 3, Markley 2, Tickle 1.
Records: Ottoville 3-0; Bath 0-3.
Reach David Trinko at 567-242-0467 or on Twitter @Lima_Trinko.
