COLUMBUS GROVE – If Columbus Grove can beat Ada Thursday, the Bulldogs will claim a share of the Northwest Conference title. In order to get to this point, however, the team has had to overcome injuries and several setbacks to put themselves on the verge of being part of the NWC title for the third straight year in a row.
The injury to All-Ohio and NWC and Putnam County player of the year Paige Bellman was the biggest blow to the team . The senior standout tore her ACL prior to the season and many people might have written the team off.
Columbus Grove head coach Brian Schroeder admits it was a shock to the team considering the injury occurred at practice. But after getting over the fact that she was lost for the season theteam began to refocus and re evaluate their roles and how they were going to deal with the absence of their top player and teammate.
“It was definitely a tough situation to be in but adversity hits you whether it is basketball or life itself,” Schroeder said to the players after the injury. “I told them I still believe in them. I still feel we had a lot of talented players n this program and to just keep working hard and give me your best effort everyday and I will give you my best effort as a coach and we will see where we are at at the end of the season.”
In addition to Bellman being out, returner Carlee McClure was out for a month of the preseason and missed the team’s opener against Shawnee which the Bulldogs lost.
In the first five games the Bulldogs struggled, going 2-3 but the team began to slowly gel as a squad and by week 14, Columbus Grove was 7-6 going into the game against Miller City Jan. 20. In the team’s final seven games, Columbus Grove has gone 6-1 with the team’s lone loss to state ranked Liberty-Benton, 43-33
Schroeder said he felt the team was coming together prior to the Christmas break after the team beat Lincolnview 51-31 but the injury bug struck again. This time Rylee Sybert, the team’s starting point guard, had to go under the knife for surgery, leaving the squad without her services for about a month. Sybert would miss the games against O-G and Ottoville that the team dropped.
“I feel once we got Rylee back for the Miller City game we started gelling again because in basketball it takes time,” Schroeder said. “I feel we are playing our basketball now. We are healthy, knock on wood, or as healthy as you can be after 22 games of basketball.”
One of the silver linings in dealing with the injuries is that some of the younger players got an opportunity to play some valuable varsity minutes and that has paid off down the stretch.
Schroeder points to talented players and senior leadership in carrying the Bulldogs through the tough times. The senior foursome of McClure, Bellman, Tayah Sautter and Lauren Schroeder provided guidance on and off the court to the younger players.
“They have shown really good leadership and are the hardest workers on the team,” Schroeder said.
One of the team’s strengths is shooting. As a team, the Bulldogs are averaging 49.2 points a game. As team Columbus Grove is shooting 40 percent from the floor and 34 percent from behind the 3-point arc.
Individually, McClure is leading the team in scoring, averaging 13.3 points a game, with Lauren Schroeder pumping in 9.9 points a contest and Sybert averaging 7.9 points a game. Abby Gladwell, who the Bulldog coach said also has been shooting well, is adding 5.7 points per game.
“Offensively we don’t have an inside threat like Paige but we do have some scorers on the perimeter and that has helped us,” Schroeder said.
Cutting down turnovers throughout the season has also been on the Bulldogs’ offensive priority list.
Bellman’s offense is not the only thing the Bulldogs are missing this year. Her presence in the paint is missed on the defensive end.
“Defensively, we are still working on trying to protect the paint,” Schroeder said. “We have always just kind of relied on Paige…so it was pretty easy in our zone if our guards got beat pressuring the perimeter and you had a six-footer down low but we just don’t have that so we have been working on protecting the paint and rebounding has been issue with our tallest girl being 5-7 or 5-8.”
With the postseason looming, Schroeder remains optimistic his team can have a big run in the postseason
“In terms of tournament time, we don’t put a lot of pressure on the girls,” Schroeder said. “We take it one game at a time. I know that is a coaching clicheé but any time you are in a single elimination tournament to pin your hopes and dreams of what you’ve accomplished in a season on a single elimination tournament is tough.”
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