Bulldogs' first-half woes ends their season to Ottoville

ELIDA — It was a cold, dry day outside on Friday. It clearly found its way inside the Elida Fieldhouse during the Division IV district final game. That is, at least for Columbus Grove. From the 1:10-mark in the first quarter to the 19-second mark of the second, the Bulldogs didn't make a field goal, made just three free throws and allowed Ottoville to get up big at halftime, 30-11. That momentum carried over in a big way, as the Big Green finally got past Grove in the districts, winning 64-45. "For the first time actually all tournament, to be honest with you, we got out in front. We got off to such a good start and that propelled us," said Ottoville coach Keith Utendorf. Ottoville will advance to Tuesday's regional semifinal at Bowling Green State University, where the Big Green will play No.1-ranked Tiffin Calvert. Calvert made easy work of Old Fort, 48-30, in a district final played at Liberty-Benton. In the first half, CG shot an abysmal 4-of-23 from the field. On the night, the Bulldogs were 15-of-46. "We got the ball in the paint, we just couldn't finish," Grove head coach Chris Sautter said. "It was kinda like watching our girls' team last night in the second half on that same rim. We were getting shots inside, they just couldn't fall. "I thought we did a nice job funneling (Will) Miller into (Brayden) Bellman. He (Bellman) came over and changed, affected and block some shots, but we didn't rebound for a flying you-know-what. We'd get a piece of it and we just didn't…he'd come help and we wouldn't go help him. I think they had like 12 second-chance points in the first half." Ottoville never trailed, going up 8-0 right off the bat. The Big Green also knocked down six first-half 3-pointers—five of which came during a 21-1 run that started with 53 seconds left in the first frame. Will Miller led all scorers, dropping 21 points for the Big Green. Carter Horstman scored 14 points and grabbed nine boards. "We knew they were gonna space and they were gonna have to help with certain situations given the matchups," Utendorf said. The Big Green was able to force Columbus Grove into eight first-half turnovers and had four steals. "We talked all week, this past week and otherwise, we've been locked in defensively for the better part of a month," Utendorf said. "Our kids tweaked some things that we naturally wanted them to do. They've made tweaks with different teams to play to them different ways. And again tonight, they were perfect in execution. "Our guys were locked in, we hit shots early that got us propelled there a little bit and then we were locked in the rest of the way." But, Grove didn't exactly roll over, either. Down 32-11, Grove closed the third quarter on a 17-7 run to make it 39-28 with one quarter left after Bo Birnesser knocked down a buzzer-beating 3. He finished with nine points for Grove. Trey Sautter scored 15 of his team-high 19 points in the final 16 minutes. But Ottoville quickly quieted Grove's momentum, going back up 15, 50-35, with 3:31 left. "When you get down that many points, you spend all your energy trying to get back into it and you can't quite get over the hump," Sautter said. "I'm proud of our kids, they battled, I felt like they did things the right way the whole time." Grove finishes the season with a 17-8 record and won nine of its last 11 games before falling Friday. With losing the program's top two scorers of all time (Blake Reynolds and Tayt Birnesser) from a season ago, making this far—Sautter says—is quite an achievement. "We lost 49-21 out of the gate to Wayne Trace and we looked like we'd never played basketball before, and I wasn't sure we'd win a game," he said. "It just took a while for everybody to come together, learn their roles and really be comfortable in what we were asking them to do. We lost to Spencerville, took one on the chin over there, then rattled off six-straight wins, got ourselves the two-seed in the district. "That says a lot about the seniors we had, Tad (Koch), the two sophomores—Zach (Reynolds) and Bo (Birnesser)—those guys accomplished a lot and have nothing to be ashamed of." COLUMBUS GROVE (17-8) Birnesser 3-7 1-2 9, Reynolds 2-5 0-0 5, Sautter 5-17 8-8 19, Schroeder 0-7 2-3 2, Bellman 5-7 0-0 10, Koch 0-1 0-0 Macke 0-1 0-0 0, Bame 0-1 0-0 0. TOTALS: 15-46 11-13 45. OTTOVILLE (17-9) Miller 6-19 9-10 21, Schnipke 2-3 0-0 6, Steffan 2-3 0-0 6, Suever 2-3 0-0 5, C. Horstman 5-10 3-4 14, Schlagbaum 0-2 2-2 2, Turnwald 3-5 2-2 8. TOTALS: 20-45 18-20 64. COLUMBUS GROVE&emsp;&emsp;6 &emsp;&emsp;5 &emsp;&emsp;17 &emsp;&emsp;17—45 OTTOVILLE &emsp;&emsp;16 &emsp;&emsp;14 &emsp;&emsp;9 &emsp;&emsp;25—64 3-POINT GOALS: Columbus Grove 4-16 (Birnesser 2-4, Reynolds 1-2, Sautter 1-9, Macke 0-1); Ottoville 6-15 (Miller 0-6, Schnipke 2-3, Steffan 2-2, Suever 1-2, Horstman 1-1, Turnwald 0-1). REBOUNDS: Columbus Grove 27 (Bellman 5, Reynolds 4, Sautter 4); Ottoville 30 (C. Horstman 9, Miller 8). TURNOVERS: Columbus Grove 13; Ottoville 9.