Fort Jennings’ Calvin Menke drives to the basket against Ottoville’s Garrett Trentman on Friday night in Ottoville.
Nate Reynolds | The Lima News
OTTOVILLE — Ottoville and Fort Jennings high schools sit a mere 1 1/2 miles from each other. The boys basketball contest between the two teams was as close as the two schools on the map.
The contest saw eight ties in the first quarter and 12 in the first half before Fort Jennings took a 17-15 lead into the break.
However, the Big Green used two 8-0 spurts in the final quarter to pull away for a 70-58 win in the non-league battle.
Ottoville used balanced scoring, getting three players in double figures with Ashton Miller leading the way with 16 points, Michael Turnwald adding 15 and Keaton Schnipke contributing 14 in the win.
Jarron Swick led Fort Jennings with 26 points and 11 rebounds for his second double-double of the year. The junior drained 10 of 13 from the foul line for the Musketeers. Bryce Gasser added nine to the Jennings effort.
Ottoville has a first-class track facility outside of the LW Heckman Gymnasium, and the team brought a bit of that into the building. The back-and-forth play went on for the better part of the contest, especially in the first quarter; the lead changed on several occasions before the hosts gained control in the third quarter.
“We love track meets too. I feel like that’s how basketball should be,” Ottoville coach Keith Utendorf said. “Obviously that’s a really good basketball team that’s improved immensely, and they’re going to be a tough team to contend with as the season goes.”
The run and gun continued into the second quarter as neither team could get a run going. Each would answer basket for basket.
Sam Dube put Fort Jennings up 31-27 late in the frame, but Miller drained a three with seconds left in the half to cut the deficit to one.
“That’s exactly what we need from him. We’ve told him he’s got to be that shooter in the corner, especially when teams kind of play a little bit of help on our interior guys especially, and he came up and hit on the two huge shots for us,” Utendorf said.
When you play that fast, eventually fouls are going to be an issue. That’s what happened to the Musketeers; the Orange and Black had four players in foul trouble in the second half with three of them — Calvin Menke, Bryce Gasser and Adam Hoersten — fouling out in the game.
Ottoville’s first of its two runs was capped off by a Hoersten triple to make it a 38-33 contest. Swick led his team back to a 42-42 tie on the strength of seven third-quarter points. After going 3 of 3 from the line, the score was tied at 46-all.
Turnwald took over for the Big Green. The senior got a steal and ran to the hoop for two, drawing the foul and completing the three-point play, capping a 5-0 run. Adam Brinkman highlighted a 8-1 spree later in the third to give Ottoville the advantage for good.
The hosts would have one more scoring streak in them in the final period, this one of the 7-2 variety.
The teams meet again in Fort Jennings on Jan. 26 for a Putnam County League contest.
Dave Boninsegna wrote this for LimaScores.com.
