By Ryan Hines
rhines@dailystandard.com Celina broke open a tight contest with a strong run to end the second quarter and the Bulldogs walked away with a 57-42 win at the Fieldhouse on Tuesday night over Lima Senior.
The Bulldogs (7-12) led all but 39 seconds in the game but the Spartans never trailed by more than five minutes until the game-changing run by Celina in the second quarter.
"I think that we've been playing better the past couple of weeks and the girls have never changed their attitude all season long," said Celina head coach Brian Stetler. "The girls work hard in practice and have all had a good attitude. This team has continued to grow and they are a fun bunch to coach. I'm not sure that the girls realize the potential that they have, but that's what we're working towards."
With the score tied at 14-14, Celina closed the first half with a 13-2 run, taking a 27-16 advantage after the first 16 minutes of action.
Laura Link led the charge for Celina during the spurt. After starting the game just 1-of-5 from the floor, Link scored nine of the points to ignite the run. The junior post player finished 6-of-11 from the field and paced Celina with 14 points. Stetler said that nothing changed in the Celina offensive approach during the second quarter, other than finally hitting some open looks at the basket.
"They (Lima Senior) was keeping the game close and I don't think that we did anything different on offense, we just started to hit some of the good looks that we were missing earlier in the game," said Stetler. "The girls were able to settle down and convert on the good looks at the basket. Once Laura got started on offense, that got the rest of the team ready and we were able to build some momentum."
The Celina lead bulged to as many as 25 points in the fourth quarter allowing the reserves to play a majority of the final stanza.
In addition to Link's 14 points, Allison Hoying also hit for double figures with 10 points, thanks to an 8-of-10 performance at the free-throw line.
Kinsey Schumann continues her strong play of late with an eight-point, 10-rebound showing against the Spartans. Julie Snyder gave plenty of energy and scored four points to go along with seven rebounds.
Celina got good news on Tuesday welcoming Liz Homan back to the lineup. Homan was cleared by doctors on Monday and had six points and five rebounds in limited minutes.
"We're getting production from more people because they are getting more minutes out there and they are making the most of their opportunities," said Stetler about the play of his team. When we can get more people involved, that's great for the team."
Lima Senior was led by Tymesha Campbell who scored a game-high 20 points. Teammate LaDaija Upshaw added 10 points.
Celina wraps up the regular season on the road at the Elida Fieldhouse for the Western Buckeye League finale. |
