OTTOVILLE – The Ottoville girls’ basketball team came into their Saturday afternoon meeting with Delphos Jefferson with a gaudy 16-1 record and the No. 3 ranking in the Division IV state poll.
The Big Green showed they are worthy of that lofty ranking as they quickly dismantled the Wildcats by a final score of 73-30.
An emphatic 9-0 burst to begin the game led to a 19-5 advantage for the Big Green after one period of play and things would never get better for Delphos as they continued a season long difficulty with turnovers.
Ottoville employed a 2-1-2 full court press that caused the Wildcats (12-6) fits as they committed 17 first half turnovers that led to a 40-12 Big Green advantage going to the break.
“We average way too many turnovers and their height advantage intimidated us some,” veteran Delphos coach Dave Hoffman said. “We got the ball into trap areas because of their length; they are very good and we just couldn’t match-up with Landin.”
The Landin that Hoffman referred to is Ottoville 6-foot senior Bridget Landin, a University of Findlay commit. She started the game with seven first quarter points on her way to a game-high 19 point effort for the Big Green. Landin also had two quick blocks and two steals to jump start the fast beginning to the game that Ottoville enjoyed.
“Bridget’s motor is always running, she doesn’t take any plays off,” Ottoville coach Dave Kleman said. “She also can play both inside and outside.”
The big half-time lead continued to grow and, as a result, Ottoville had 10 players break into the scoring column in the contest and the Big Green took a 60-22 to the fourth quarter.
Both teams substituted freely and Ottoville enjoyed a 13-8 advantage to account for the final score.
“We’re rounding into shape and I’m happy with how we are playing.” Kleman said. “We are doing a good job of getting the ball to the right person in the right place. I have 10 to 12 very athletic players who play against each other in practice every night and defensively they want to make it tough to score for the other team.”
Besides Landin and her 19 points, the Big Green also got double digit scoring efforts from CJ Kemper (13), Amber Miller (11), and Kasey Knippen (10).
Jefferson was led by Sarah Miller with 10 points. Freshman Delaney Deuel totaled 8 points for the Wildcats coming in off the bench.
Delphos struggled to 26 turnovers in the game to only 10 for Ottoville and the Big Green dominated the rebounds by a 32-23 margin. The Wildcats shot 28 percent from the field for the game while Ottoville finished at 51 percent.
The win was number 497 for coach Kleman and he continues the climb to the 500 victory club.
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