Tue Feb 09 2010
By BRUCE HEFFLINGER
OTTAWA -- A chess match broke out at Tuesday's Defiance and Ottawa-Glandorf basketball game.
Head coaches Kirk Lehman and Josh Leslie used move after countermove in an attempt to slow down the opposition while at the same time trying to generate some offense. In the end it was two runs, one early and one late, that gave the host Titans a 44-39 Western Buckeye League victory.
"He does as good a job as anybody we play," Leslie said of Lehman. "They're always prepared and they don't get rattled. We couldn't get that knockout run but we did just enough."
An 8-0 lead to start the game gave the Titans an advantage they would never relinquish.
"Last year we chased them the whole game," Leslie noted about a 57-43 loss to the Bulldogs. "This year it was a reversal."
While Defiance never led, the opportunities were aplenty.
Ten first-half points by Alex Keel helped keep the visitors close and Ron Beverly provided an offensive spark off the bench for the Bulldogs, which trailed just 24-20 at the break.
"As physical a game as it was, our kids withstood the physicalness of the game, battled and competed," noted Lehman. "Not a lot of people come in here and get a win but we gave ourselves a chance."
Two Keel baskets sandwiched around a 3-pointer by Craig Gutman pulled DHS within one point at 28-27 midway through the third quarter. But O-G went on a 7-0 run, including two buckets by Jacob Moening, to regain the momentum, helped by four Defiance turnovers in a span of three minutes.
"When we made a spurt there we still had a chance but that really hurt," Lehman said of his team's struggles late in a third quarter that saw Moening score eight of O-G's 11 points.
Moening tied Taylor Kuhlman for team-high honors with 14 points while adding four rebounds.
"He's got a good shot, he's good one-on-one and he's good in the post," Lehman said of the 6-1 senior. "We didn't get enough help from the side on him."
Still the Bulldogs (2-3) managed to stay close.
Four O-G turnovers in a span of five possessions, a trey by Gutman and a jumper in the paint by Beverly left DHS down just 35-34 with 3:12 to play. After Moening scored inside on a nice feed from Kuhlman, Keel countered with a score on a pass from Alex Nofziger.
However, Eric Brickner drove through the Defiance defense for a layup and, after a DHS miss, the Titans converted four consecutive four shots, two each by Josh Johnson and Brickner, for a 43-36 lead and the defending Division III state champs held on to improve to 4-0 on the season.
"It was a typical WBL game," Leslie said. "It was a fistfight at the rim. All the teams are so well coached. They're not going to let you run."
Defiance was able to handle the full-court pressure of the Titans, a key component in helping give the Bulldogs a chance at the end.
"We were concerned with their press but the kids executed the game plan," Lehman explained.
But despite permitting just one transition basket to O-G, the Bulldogs came up short, due mostly to the solid half-court defense of the Titans.
"Their defense is so good," Lehman pointed out. "They get you out of what you like to do. Their pressure is so intense and they're so resilient. You have to stay focused the whole 32 minutes. If you let down they'll do things to hurt you.
"Brickner keys their defense. That guy works so hard. He sets the tone for everybody else."
Keel had 18 points to pace Defiance, but got off just one shot in the fourth quarter.
"We let him get where he wanted to," Leslie pointed out about the 6-6 senior scoring 10 points in the first half. "In the second half we did a better job of beating him to the spot he wanted to be. He's a very good player. He killed us last year and we wanted to limit his touches this year."
The Titans manhandled the Bulldogs in the junior varsity game 67-22, jumping out to a 30-11 halftime lead in improving to 4-0 while dropping DHS to 2-3. Andrew Trenkamp scored 16 points and Jordan Alt 15 for O-G.
Defiance now takes a week off before hosting Maumee on Tuesday while O-G is at Perrysburg on Saturday.
BOX SCORE
DEFIANCE (39) - T. Keel 0; Nofziger 5; A. Keel 18; Gutman 6; Hammersmith 0; Stapleton 2; Parsons 0; Beverly 8. Spitnale 0. Totals 14-32 8-13 39.
OTTAWA-GLANDORF (44) - Brickner 5; Everett 0; T. Kuhlman 14; Moening 14; B. Kuhlman 0; Schmiedebusch 4; Laubenthal 0; Johnson 5; Kaufman 2; Rosebrock 0; Schomaeker 0. Totals 16-39 11-17 44.
Three-point goals: Defiance - Gutman 2, Nofziger. O-G - Johnson. Rebounds: Defiance 20 (Gutman 5, Beverly 5), O-G 24. Turnovers: Defiance 18, O-G 12.
Defiance 8 12 9 10 - 39
Ottawa-Glandorf 12 11 11 9 - 44
Reserves: O-G, 67-22.
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