By MARC TOBIAS
mtobias@dailystandard.com
The Lady Bulldogs basketball squad was able to even its record
at 3-3 with an easy 83-40 victory over Ansonia at the Fieldhouse
on Monday night.
The 83 points were a season high for the Bulldogs.
“We’ve been scoring quite a few points all year
now, I don’t know exactly what our average is, but we’ve
been getting over 60 quite a bit,” said Celina coach Jack
Clouse. “We’re pleased about how the offense is
running right now, we’re shooting well.”
It was nip and tuck midway through the first quarter as a pair
of free throws by the Tigers’ Kendra Billenstein cut the
Celina lead down to 9-7.
The Bulldogs went on a 12-0 run immediately after, though, and
took a commanding 21-7 lead into the second quarter.
Betsy Hone was a spark off the bench, as she scored three straight
buckets during the 12-0 run.
Celina kept up the pressure in the second quarter, mainly behind
the play of Kara Osterfeld.
Osterfeld scored 10 points in the second to help the Bulldogs
go into the locker room with a 40-21 lead.
Osterfeld ended up leading all scorers with 21 points, and she
had a great shooting night. The senior buried all three of her
three-point attempts and she was solid from the free-throw line,
hitting 8-of-9 from the charity stripe.
“She had 21 and probably only played three-quarters of
the ball game, she shot well,” Clouse said. “We’ve
been expecting her to turn it on, she hadn’t quite done
it yet but that’s a nice coming out right there and hopefully
it will just continue. I also thought Williams (Kelli) shot
a heck of a percentage from three-point also, and really everybody
shot pretty well tonight.”
Williams finished with 12 points as she hit 2-of-3 from behind
the arc and 5-of-7 from the field.
Celina made 53 percent (28-53) of its shots compared to just
29 percent (15-52) for Ansonia. The Tigers also struggled with
handling the ball, as they turned it over 23 times.
The Bulldogs benefited by taking the ball to the basket, as
they made 22-of-30 free throw attempts. Celina’s ability
to get the ball inside and drive to the basket allowed it to
make 10 more free throws than Ansonia attempted.
Celina’s inside presence was also evident on the glass,
as the Bulldogs were able to grab 11 offensive boards.
Despite being up 19 points at the break, Celina had no problems
keeping its intensity level up in the third quarter as it outscored
the Tigers 23-8.
“I thought they played real solid the whole ball game,”
Clouse said. “They kept their head in what we were doing.
The whole group, the kids that came off the bench kept it right
on going, and that’s how you come up with that many points.
To be quite honest, I was pleasantly surprised to see the bench
score that many points.”
Celina had 10 girls in the scoring column. Hone and Andrea Bryan
were able to score in double digits to join Osterfeld and Williams.
Hone finished with 11 while Bryan notched 12 points to go with
six boards. Laura Link led the Bulldogs with 8 rebounds while
adding six points.
Celina would go on to win the fourth quarter 20-11.
The Bulldogs return to action Thursday when they travel to Lima
Shawnee in a Western Buckeye League matchup.
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