Celina holds off LCC

CELINA - The Celina girls basketball team had been on the wrong side of several close games over the last few weeks.

The Bulldogs finished on the right side Tuesday night.

Jenna Berry led a quartet of players in double figures with 16 points and the Bulldogs made enough plays down the stretch to fend off a late Lima Central Catholic charge for a 60-51 victory in non-conference play at the Fieldhouse.

Heather Heiby (14 points), Kelly Stahl (13) and Haley McGillvary (12) rounded out the list of double-digit scorers for Celina, which led by as many as 14 points in the third quarter.

After cutting the deficit to 43-34 by the end of three quarters, LCC came out sizzling from behind the three-point line in the fourth. Shelby Donnelly and Natalie Snider cashed back-to-back treys to make the score 50-45 with 5:45 to play. Later on, Madison Stolly drove and scored and then Snider buried another from downtown to pull the Thunderbirds within two at 52-50. It didn't get any closer.

Heiby dribbled baseline and scored and then Berry and Caelyn Reineke each hit a pair at the line to put the game out of reach.

"The big thing is we didn't panic," Celina coach Steve Bader said. "We did a lot better job executing our offense and scoring when we needed to. We knew they didn't have a post game. We had to worry about their threes. We just made the right calls. (Assistant) coach (Kyle) Menchhofer made some right calls with our offensive sets and we were able to score and we got to the foul line. We went 15-of-20, and that's huge. If you get fouled and make those foul shots, it makes it a lot easier."

The Bulldogs had trailed by five points early in the first quarter. They closed the frame with a 10-3 run and never trailed again.

Heiby and McGillvary knocked down back-to-back three-pointers as part of a 10-2 run in the second quarter. Celina led 31-22 at halftime.

Bader decided to play a little "Stahl Ball" in the third quarter. Kelly Stahl scored seven points and added an assist before having to exit with her third foul five minutes into the quarter. Stahl's play during that run and good-enough execution in crunch time enabled Celina to pull out the win over a stingy bunch from LCC.

"I thought we had a very good third quarter and then they hit those threes and kept battling back," Bader said. "By far it was our best team effort in terms of finishing a game. We've been struggling finishing games."

Stolly led LCC with 14 points and seven rebounds. Samantha Koenig and Shelby Donnelly each added 11 points for the T-Birds, who finished with 10 three-pointers on 29 attempts.

Stahl finished with a game-high nine rebounds for Celina.

It ends a streak of five consecutive losses for the Bulldogs (8-6), who will try to start a new winning streak at Wapakoneta on Thursday.

"We told the girls down in the locker room we've got to box out better against Wapak. We've got to get those rebounds," Bader added. "I'm very happy with the win. We needed it. Now we've got to get ready for Wapak on Thursday."