Flyers win OVISCO title

CELINA - Marion Local's Heidi Rethman came out on fire in Saturday's OVISCO championship game against St. Henry.

She remained on fire, too.

The sophomore guard scored 22 points, and the Flyers put away the Redskins with a 15-5 run in the final quarter to win 59-42 at the Celina Fieldhouse.

"They just couldn't miss," St. Henry coach Wendi Moorman said. "Heidi Rethman had (22 points). That's fantastic."

Marion Local led 20-12 after the first quarter behind the hot shooting of Kelsey Koenig and Rethman. Koenig hit one 3 in the quarter and scored seven points in the frame. Rethman connected on two triples.

"(Rethman) definitely got us going," Marion Local coach Beth Streib said. "We haven't hit many 3s this year. She kind of got us going with that. She played well defensively, and she got that key offensive rebound at the end and put it back in when we were sort of in a lull there. She kind of had been struggling the last couple of games, but we know she has it in her. She finally went out and showed it."

Rethman upped her point total to 11 by halftime, and the Flyers led by 12 at one point in the second quarter. St. Henry closed the gap to 29-23 by halftime.

Marion Local outscored St. Henry 13-9 in the third quarter, but the Redskins cut the lead to 44-39 after a 3-pointer by Nora Vaughn and a steal and layup by Danielle Lange. The Flyers followed with a 15-5 run to seal the win.

"We had that lead pretty much throughout the whole game, and then they cut it to five in the fourth quarter," Streib said. "I told the girls after that they responded well to that. I think that's when Heidi hit two free throws and had that follow-up that put it back to 10. That kind of deflated them a little bit."

"Their defense took us completely out of our offense," Moorman said. "We talked about defensive pressure that they were going to put on us. We had a really good offensive night on Thursday, but it didn't translate to today."

Natalie Rethman added nine points for the Flyers. Alana Pohlman had 11 boards.

Allison Siefring had a big game for the Redskins, finishing with 11 points and 11 rebounds. Lange also scored 11.

CONSOLATION GAME
Coldwater 30,
Celina 24

On Dec. 11, Coldwater defeated Celina 48-29 at the Palace in Coldwater.

The script was a little different on Saturday, but the Cavaliers were still the winners, grinding out a 30-24 win without their starting point guard Kate Leichty.

"Our staple, I think, is that our girls are playing really good defense." Coldwater coach Kennan Leichty said. "When you have basically a third of your points on the bench (Kate Leichty), that takes a toll. I thought Alli May stepped up and did a nice job of running the point. A couple of girls who normally don't get a lot of minutes for us stepped up. Molly Steinke stepped up. Annalise Harlamert had to start - she stepped up and played well. Janel Bruns came in and gave us some positive minutes defensively. Courtney May did a good job of looking for her offense. Overall, I was happy with how we stepped up. We needed it."

Coldwater held a 9-7 lead after the first quarter and maintained a 15-11 advantage at break.

Courtney May scored all seven of her points in the half for Coldwater.

The Bulldogs went on a 5-0 run that gave them a 16-15 lead in the third, with Brooke Robbins banking in a shot from eight feet away and then Maddy Luebke hitting the go-ahead 3-pointer. But Coldwater reclaimed the lead on a Lauren Gilliland basket and was in front 22-18 heading into the fourth.

The Cavaliers made 8 of 14 foul shots in the final period, and the Bulldogs went cold, finishing 2 of 6 shooting in the stanza.

"I thought we did a lot better job in transition defense than the last time we played Coldwater," Celina coach Cenzie Rushton said. "It was definitely an improvement from the last time we played them. Our offense was much better prepared. I thought they were really focused this in preparation. But it comes down to us knowing the time and score and we need to have some shots fall.

"I thought the effort was tremendous," Rushton added. "I give big kudos to Carley Eichler for guarding their point guard all night and making it hard on her, and Maddy Luebke in the post really banged with (Lauren) Gilliland. I don't know how many buckets she had besides free throws. I thought that was a pretty awesome night. I'm proud of us defensively and in transition. We've just to get our offense to where we need it to be."

Gilliland had seven points and 13 boards for Coldwater.

Brooke Robbins and Emily Braun scored six each to lead Celina. Luebke had five points and a team-best seven rebounds.