Ottawa-Glandorf’s Karsyn Erford, left, takes the ball up the court past Toledo Central Catholic’s Brooklyn Vaughn during Saturday’s game in Ottawa.
Jessica Trinko | The Lima News
OTTAWA — Ottawa-Glandorf had the ball in the hands of the right player and plenty of momentum at the end of Saturday’s game.
But Toledo Central Catholic had Brooklyn Vaughn.
As the Titans’ Karsyn Erford, who’d already scored 20 points in the game, went to make a move at the basket for what would’ve been the winning bucket, Vaughn tapped the ball away and ran upcourt in the closing seconds of TCC’s 56-55 upset victory at Ottawa’s Supreme Court.
“Obviously we wanted to try to get Karsyn to the rim. No. 44 (Vaughn) did a great job,” said Ottawa-Glandorf coach Troy Yant, whose team entered the game ranked No. 2 in the state in Division III. “… She’d been pretty good at getting to the rim all game.”
Vaughn, a 6-foot forward who’s committed to play Division I basketball at Loyola Chicago next year, had also been pretty good all game for the Irish (10-5), whose five losses have been to teams averaging just two losses apiece this year. She had a double-double with 10 rebounds and 16 points, along with three steals.
“Brooklyn doesn’t surprise me on anything she does,” TCC acting head coach Terry Murnen said. “She’s such a competitor. She wants her teammates to play as hard as she does. She’ll come up with a play, somehow, someway.”
Ave Pietras and Corniya Clay each added 12 points for TCC, with Pietras scoring hers on three 3-pointers.
TCC, which plays in Division II compared to O-G’s Division III, led by as many as five points in the third and the fourth quarters, but the Titans (16-2) found a way to get close. In the third quarter, it was a 10-point O-G run to gain a one-point advantage entering the final quarter, as Katie Kaufman scored nine of her 20 points in the stanza. Kaufman, a 6-foot-1 senior, also had nine rebounds and three blocks in the game.
The teams traded the lead back and forth a few times before TCC took the lead for good with 1:10 remaining in the game at 55-53. The teams exchanged free throws the rest of the way.
The Titans had actually led by as many as 12 in the second quarter, after a four-minute, 11-0 run for a 21-9 lead. TCC responded with a 17-3 run to take a two-point lead into the half.
“What we need to learn from this game is how to play with the 10- or 11-point lead. It felt like we wasted some opportunities. We could’ve done a little better job running our offense and waiting for something to come, instead of forcing it.”
Neither team led by more than five points the rest of the way. In the end, the Irish players made the defensive plays when they needed them most, even though O-G hit 53% of its shots, compared to TCC’s 46%.
“We were so concerned about (O-G’s) size and their shooting ability,” Murnen said. “I was just very proud of our kids. I thought we kind of locked down defensively. They very easily could have blown us out early, and I thought our kids showed some pretty good resolve as far as battling back in that second quarter.”
Toledo Central Catholic 56, Ottawa-Glandorf 55
Toledo Central Catholic 9 17 13 17 — 56
Ottawa-Glandorf 14 10 17 14 — 55
TOLEDO CENTRAL CATHOLIC
Sophia Farrugia 9, Corniya Clay 12, Nina Stevens 2, Ava Pietras 12, Brooklyn Vaughn 16. Totals: 23-4 — 56.
OTTAWA-GLANDORF
Karsyn Erford 20, Carlie Brinkman 5, Katie Kaufman 20, Myka Aldrich 2, Kaitlyn Kimmet 8. Totals: 23-8 — 55.
3-pointers: TCC-Pietras 4, Bolden 1, Farrugia 1; O-G-Erford 1.
Reach David Trinko at 567-242-0467 or on Twitter @Lima_Trinko.
