Bulldogs edged by Knights

CELINA - After a tough outing the night before, the Celina girls basketball team looked to bounce back Tuesday night on Senior Night against a solid Crestview squad.

The Bulldogs and Knights battled back and forth for 32 minutes. In the end, Paige Motycka's jumper with 26 seconds to go and Emily Bauer's free throws with four seconds left lifted Crestview past Celina 52-49 at the Fieldhouse.

Early on, Celina appeared to have a carry-over of sluggishness from Monday's 92-51 loss at Lima Senior. Crestview led 14-9 after one quarter.

Celina came back in the second quarter, tied the game at 18-all on Trish Dennis' bucket and later took a 22-21 lead on a Heather Heiby layup. Celina scored the final eight points of the first half - the final six by Heiby - to go up 26-21 at halftime.

"Girls did a nice job getting back into the game," Bader said.

"We were really happy how they responded. We got ourselves going and got a little energy. You can't play flat all the time."

The Bulldogs scored the first basket of the second half to make it 28-21 before the Knights started their comeback. Claire Zaleski, who had not made a three-pointer in her past nine games, started the Knights' comeback with a trey. Baskets by Brady Guest and Motycka put Crestview within two points several times, only to have Celina hit a big basket to add some cushion. Bauer hit a three at the buzzer to cut Crestview's deficit to 38-35 after three quarters.

"Second half, girls had some breakdowns," Bader said. "We didn't get to the back side."

Caelyn Reineke gave Celina a five-point lead to start the fourth quarter, but the Knights scored seven straight points to go up 42-40 on Bauer's trey.

Free throws by Jenna Berry tied the game at 42 and then a Berry basket put Celina ahead with 2:53 left to play. Zaleski hit a trey to make it 45-44, but Berry countered with a three-pointer of her own to put Celina up two at 47-45. Zaleski topped Berry again with another trey to put the Knights up 48-47 with 1:44 to go.

"We took our chances. We knew (Zaleski) wasn't a scorer," Bader said. "We gave up the baseline a couple times and got ourselves down."

Celina worked the ball around to Heiby, who was fouled going to the basket. Heiby made both free throws with 51.3 seconds left to put Celina up 49-48. Crestview came down and worked the ball to Motycka, who was able to get in and hit a jumper with 26 seconds left. The Bulldogs tried to get the ball inside, but turned the ball over and were forced to foul twice to put the Knights into the bonus. Bauer hit both free throws with 3.8 seconds left to make it a three-point game. Celina got the ball to Heiby, but her three-pointer was off the mark as the buzzer sounded.

"We had the right play drawn up at the end of the game," Bader said. "Crestview did a nice job defending it."

Zaleski was 4-of-4 from the three-point line to finish with 14 for Crestview. Bauer led the Knights with 15, Motycka scored 13 and Guest scored 10.

Heiby scored 14 in her final game at the Fieldhouse. Berry scored 13. All six seniors (Heiby, Dennis, Reineke, Kelly Stahl, Haley McGillvary and Mackenzie Moorman) scored in their last home game

Celina travels to Van Wert on Thursday in WBL play.