Bulldogs fall by one on the road

GREENVILLE - All the hard work that the Celina Bulldogs did to overcome foul trouble against Greenville on Monday night was swept away by, ironically, a foul call.

Of the 23 fouls the Bulldogs were called for in their girls basketball game, the final one was a bit of a shocker.

With the score tied at 62, Greenville's Ashlee Hetzler sprinted down court to give the Green Wave a chance to win the game when the referee whistled a Celina player for a reach-in with five seconds left.

Hetzler made the first but missed the second, and the last-chance scoring try by Celina didn't come to fruition, giving the Green Wave a 63-62 win in non-conference action.

The Bulldogs were looking for their third straight win but fall to 3-4 while the Wave are now 4-4.

The physical contest, 43 total fouls called and 50 free throws attempted, certainly affected the game. Celina had to play the final two minutes without veteran Betsy Hone, who picked up her fifth foul, and having Liz Homan, Cenzie Yoder and Amy Harner all playing with four fouls for much of the second half.

The Bulldogs came back from four points down -31-27 - at the half as the Bulldogs looked down in the post to Homan, who was 8-of-9 from the field, and Yoder, who was 7-of-9. Homan had five points in the third quarter and Yoder added six as Celina outscored Greenville 18-10 taking a 45-41 lead into the final eight minutes of play.

"The third quarter we came out and took control for a while," said Celina coach Brian Stetler. "We talked about it at halftime and said we had to get it inside as much as possible. It did work well for us in the third."

"It gave us a lot of trouble," Greenville coach Tom Rettig said of the post play of Homan and Yoder. (Lauren) Kindell (the starting post player for Greenville) was on the bench with foul trouble and Brittany Teaford, playing just her second game, played a little bit more than I wanted her to play tonight, but she did a great job."

Greenville came back, thanks in part to its foul shooting. The Green Wave hit 21-of-28 free throws in the contest, and early tosses by Teaford and Lisa Brinley allowed the Wave to tie things up at 51 with 4:34 to go in the game. Greenville's Macie Blinn gave the Wave the lead in the quarter with a layup 29 seconds later to make it 53-51.

Celina went back low. Yoder hit back-to-back bunnies to put Celina up 55-53 with 3:18 left, but with less than three minutes left, Teaford tied things up again.

Homan and Teaford matched shots to keep it tied at 57-all with 2:23 left before Justine Shilt got a steal and layup with 2:05 left to put the Wave up two at 59-57. Shilt missed the front end of the one-and-bonus, on Hone's fifth foul, but Blinn got the rebound and the putback with 1:52 to put the Wave up 61-57. Homan missed two free throws with 1:33 left, but a Greenville turnover got Celina the ball back as Homan made the old-school three-pointer with the hoop-and-harm with 52.3 seconds left to get Celina within one.

Shilt was fouled and went to the line, making one-of-two to make it a two-point game before Celina again went inside again and found Yoder scored with nine seconds left to tie the game at 62.

Hetzler got the inbounds and dashed down court and just past midcourt, a whistle blew for a foul, shocking the Celina fans and bench. Hetzler made the first but missed the second for the game-winner.

Shelbi Nation got the ball to Harner, but before she could get the ball away, the buzzer sounded to end the wild contest.

"We just lost focus a couple of times at crucial times," said Stetler. "(Greenville) took advantage of it. Give them credit for that. ... I'm still proud of the kids.

"Even though we lost the game, I think we took a couple of steps forward. We had to play through some adversity throughout the game with foul trouble. You hate to lose the game, but I thought the girls played hard."

"It was a very physical game," said Rettig. "Celina's going to bring it. They're going to come ready to play. (Stetler) does a great job with his kids. They play hard."

Homan finished with 18 points and Yoder added 14 with Hone scoring 11. Blinn scored 18 to lead Greenville while Teaford scored 16 with Shilt adding 12.

Celina looks to get back to winning ways on Saturday, hosting St. Henry for a noon contest at the Fieldhouse.