L-B takes advantage of 'one chance' vs. Titans

OTTAWA – In past years, the regular season matchup between Liberty-Benton and Ottawa-Glandorf's girls basketball teams served as the first round, a warmup for a postseason showdown. That won't be the case this season. The Eagles and Titans have frequently met in the postseason – O-G and L-B have faced off in the district tournament in each of the last four years. But with the Eagles now in Division II and the Titans in Division III, there won't be a rematch. So Tuesday's game between the area rivals took on a little more importance. "I stressed with the girls, we've only got one chance," said L-B coach Nate Irwin. Liberty-Benton made the most of it. With 16 points from Kylie Recker and dominant second half, the Eagles shook off a frigid start to overcome an early deficit and win, 47-34. Liberty-Benton improved to 7-0. O-G dropped to 4-2. The Eagles made just one of their first 10 field goals, and trailed 11-3 at the end of the first quarter. In the final seconds of the second quarter, an Eagle turnover led to an easy layup for Lily Haselman, and O-G went to the break up 18-12. "At halftime, I was nervous," Irwin said. "I couldn't let them know that, but I was nervous, because O-G had a lot of the momentum." But in the third quarter, Recker and her teammates asserted themselves. A 3-pointer from Riley Irwin brought L-B within 21-17 about a minute into the period, and a three-point play from Recker about two minutes later gave the Eagles a 24-23 edge. Recker added a 3 and a layup, and finished with eight points in the third. "Kylie Recker had a great game for us tonight and led us on both sides of the floor, never came off the floor," coach Irwin said. "Can't be more proud of her." L-B finished the quarter on an 11-4 run to lead 35-27 after three. "We had energy, everyone was cheering," Recker said. "That's something that really gets our team going. We start making shots, everyone's excited. It gets the domino effect on, and we keep doing well." Ottawa-Glandorf got within five points a few times in the fourth, but struggled to generate offense. The Titans finished 15 for 56 (26 %) shooting from the floor. O-G coach Troy Yant said the team is still finding itself after starting late due to soccer team's run to the state final. "We didn't make shots," he said. "I guess that's the dilemma of starting late, having so many girls in soccer. Not a lot of days shooting in the gym, so, instead of a lot of individual work, it's primarily been a lot of team work, working on defense, things of that nature. "You could see they were ahead of us on that offensive end, being able to shoot," Yant said. "Obviously, that (Karis) Willow girl in the middle altered a lot of our shots." Willow finished with five blocks, while Lauren Gerken had 10 points, nine rebounds and four assists. Riley Irwin added 11 points. But L-B's defense was the key. "I told the girls, 'I'll go to bed tonight extremely proud, because I thought we were the tougher team in the second half,'" coach Irwin said. "And that's hard to do against Ottawa-Glandorf. We have so much respect for them, but I do feel the tougher team won tonight." Coach Irwin also credited his assistants. The coach missed Monday's practice due to a family matter. L-B assistant coaches Jensen Hiegel Ryan Lieb and Chad Lieb ran things. "I don't think I've ever missed a practice the day before a game, but I had to," coach Irwin said. "My assistant coaches came into practice (Monday), we only had one day to prepare. We had a great gameplan, and our girls responded." Despite O-G's loss, Yant saw positives. One of them was the return of Chloee Glenn, who played some minutes after missing considerable time due to injury. In addition, Kaelyn Grothause had eight points, 12 rebounds and four steals for the Titans, while Karsyn Erford added eight points and Katie Kaufman added seven points and eight boards. "You never like losing to L-B," Yant said. "In the past, we've usually had the chance to catch them up in the tournament. We won't have that opportunity (this season), but it's a good measuring stick for us to know where we're at. "We've got some things to work on. We knew that," he said. "I think if we did have an opportunity to see them later in the season, when we're fully healthy and developed, I think it's a different tale of the tape." But L-B took advantage of its one chance, something not lost on Recker, who is a senior. "It's just so nice to get that final win," she said. LIBERTY-BENTON (7-0) Willow 1-2—5; Barbara 1-0—2; Recker 6-1—16; Irwin 4-0—11; Gerken 4-2—10; Crow 1-1—3. TOTALS 17-53—6-8—47. OTTAWA-GLANDORF (4-2) Grothaus 4-0—8; Erford 3-1—8; Kaufman 3-1—7; Aldrich 2-0—4; Haselman 1-1—3; Glenn 1-0—2; Verhoff 1-0—2. Totals: 15-56—3-6—34. Liberty-Benton 3 &emsp;&emsp;9 &emsp;&emsp;23 &emsp;&emsp;12 – 47 Ottawa-Glandorf &emsp;&emsp;11 &emsp;&emsp;7 &emsp;&emsp;9 &emsp;&emsp;7 – 34 3-POINT FIELD GOALS: Liberty-Benton 7-26 (Recker 3, Irwin 3, Willow); Ottawa-Glandorf 1-13 (Erford). REBOUNDS: Liberty-Benton 25 (Gerken); Ottawa-Glandorf 30 (Grothause 12) TURNOVERS: Liberty-Benton 9; Ottawa-Glandorf 18. JUNIOR VARSITY: Ottawa-Glandorf 57-19.