OTTAWA – If Ottawa-Glandorf’s 50-38 boys basketball win over Bluffton on Saturday night were a play, it could have been in three acts.
First act, O-G threatens to make it a blowout. Second act, Bluffton makes it close for a little while. Third act, the Titans finish strong and remain undefeated (9-0) this season.
Jay Kaufman scored 13 points and pulled down 10 rebounds for O-G in its non-league win.
Luke Denecker scored 15 points and Trevor Bassitt had eight points and nine rebounds for Bluffton (3-5).
If O-G’s offense could have taken advantage of the 27 turnovers its pressure defense forced, its early dominance might have been the only story of the game.
But the Titans shot just 16 of 47 (34 percent) overall and were 3 of 17 on 3-point shots.
“We didn’t execute very well. We shot very, very poorly,” Ottawa-Glandorf coach Tyson McGlaughlin said.
“We didn’t get into any sort of rhythm. Our focus wasn’t there, for whatever reason. We got to a little lead early and I thought we got complacent. We just started to settle. They went to some zone and instead of attacking it the way we normally do, we settled for shots.
“When we didn’t knock down shots, we couldn’t really get that run we were looking for. But give Bluffton credit. They played hard, they kept on battling, but I just thought our execution wasn’t what it needed to be.”
Bluffton dug itself into a hole early in the game with 15 first-half turnovers, including 10 in the first quarter and six on its first eight possessions. The Pirates had twice as many turnovers (10) as shots (five) in the first eight minutes.
But the damage was not quite as severe as it could have been if Ottawa-Glandorf could have converted more of those turnovers into points.
After jumping out to a 14-2 lead in the opening minute of the second quarter the Titans saw that lead cut to 27-18 at halftime.
And after all those turnovers in the first quarter, Bluffton’s offense settled down to hit 7 of 12 shots in the second quarter.
By the middle of the third quarter, the Titans’ lead was down to five points, 33-28 after a 15-footer by Bluffton’s Gabe Denecker.
But an 11-1 run over the next seven minutes allowed O-G to gradually build its biggest lead of the night, 44-29.
Bluffton shot 40 percent on field goals (16 of 40), including 1 of 13 on 3-pointers, and outrebounded Ottawa-Glandorf 31-24.
Ottawa-Glandorf will play Lima Central Catholic on Monday night in a game postponed by bad weather in December.
.neFileBlock {
margin-bottom: 20px;
}
.neFileBlock p {
margin: 0px 0px 0px 0px;
}
.neFileBlock .neFile {
border-bottom: 1px dotted #aaa;
padding-bottom: 5px;
padding-top: 10px;
}
.neFileBlock .neCaption {
font-size: 85%;
}
