Ottawa-Glandorf’s Karsyn Erford drives to the basket against Bath’s Gwyn Foust on Thursday night in Ottawa.
Nate Reynolds | The Lima News
OTTAWA — Ottawa-Glandorf got what it wanted out of its 61-46 win over Bath in a matchup of the two top teams in the Western Buckeye League girls basketball standings on Thursday night.
But it took a little longer for the Titans’ game plan to take effect than they had hoped going into the game.
O-G (14-1, 5-0 WBL) was behind 23-22 to visiting Bath (9-4, 4-1 WBL) at halftime before a dominant third quarter turned the game completely in its direction.
The Titans outscored Bath 22-8 in the third quarter to take a 44-31 lead into the final quarter. They were a different team defensively and offensively after halftime.
Karsyn Erford scored 17 points to lead four O-G players in double figures. Carlie Brinkman had 11 points, and Myka Aldrich and Kaitlyn Kimmet scored 10 points.
Anne Oliver’s 17 points led Bath and Izzy McDermott got 11 points.
“We basically did in the third quarter what I’d hoped we would do in the first quarter,” Ottawa-Glandorf coach Troy Yant said.
“There was a lot of energy in the first quarter, but there was a lot of wasted energy. We had a lot of empty trips up and down the floor. It was a game where we really needed to challenge them at halftime, and I thought they responded well in the second half,” he said.
The Titans also seemed to respond well when Kimmet hit a 3-pointer in the first minute of the third quarter to regain the lead — a lead they maintained the rest of the way. Kimmet hit another 3-pointer later in the quarter, and Megan Horstman delivered a third 3-pointer in the quarter.
Ottawa-Glandorf, which shot 10 of 23 overall and hit only one 3-pointer in the first half, shot 75 percent on field goals (9 of 12) in the third quarter.
“The first half didn’t go the way we wanted it to, but I knew once we got one bucket and stepped up the rest would come. Once we all stepped up and put our part in, it started going the way we wanted things to go,” Erford said.
Kimmet’s quick three “got us going,” Erford said. “That really made us step up, like we have to play a lot better than we did in the first half to get the job done. We want that WBL title, that’s what we’re going for right now.
“We knew going into the game this was one of the biggest games for the WBL. We were both undefeated (in league games), and one of us was going to come out on top. We worked really hard to get that job done because we want that title for the WBL,” she said.
Yant called O-G’s three 3-pointers in the third quarter after hitting only one in the first half “another dagger that helped turn the momentum in our favor.”
“We would like to have had that happen in the first half. They played a little bit of zone. Maybe hit a couple threes, and you’d get them out of it. Fortunately it happened when the momentum changed,” he said.
Bath coach Greg Mauk said, “They play a lot harder than we do. Our kids didn’t know how to handle it when they started stepping it up in the second half, and that was a problem for us the entire second half. I’m not going to blame it on youth because we’re halfway through the season. That’s something we need to be able to be a lot better at.”
“We didn’t guard very well, we didn’t play offense very well. They took advantage of that. They’re a good ballclub.”
Ottawa-Glandorf 61, Bath 46
Score by quarters:
Bath 9 14 8 15 — 46
O-G 11 11 22 17 — 61
BATH
Anne Oliver 17, Kelsie Carlson 6, Claire Foust 9, Izzy McDermott 11, Gwynn Foust 1, Marlie Mason 2. Totals: 16-11-46
OTTAWA-GLANDORF
Karsyn Erford 17, Carlie Brinkman 11, Katie Kaufman 10, Myka Aldrich 10, Kaitlyn Kimmet 8, Megan Horstman 5. Totals: 24-8-61.
Three-pointers: B – McDermott 3; OG – Kimmet 2, Brinkman 1, Kaufman 1, Horstman 1.
Records: Ottawa-Glandorf 14-1, 5-0 WBL; Bath 9-4, 4-1 WBL.
