By Gary R. Rasberry
grasberry@dailystandard.com Celina girls basketball coach Brian Stetler said that one of the keys to his team is the play of his post players.
The Bulldog duo of Laura Link and Liz Homan proved their coach true on Saturday, combining for a 15-of-21 shooting day to help the Bulldogs win their second straight game with a 62-45 victory over Greenville at the Fieldhouse.
Celina jumps over the .500 mark at 6-5 as the Lady Wave fall to 4-7.
Link and Homan dominated the inside, keeping Celina in the lead for almost the entire game. Link was 7-of-10 from the floor and a perfect 6-of-6 from the line to finish with a game-high 20 points and pulled down seven rebounds -- five offensive.
Homan nearly matched her teammate, shooting 8-of-11 and finishing with 17 points, getting the double-double with a game-high 15 rebounds. Overall, Celina was 24-of-43 on the day, a 55.8 percent average.
"Most of our strength, it's no secret, lies in our paint area," said Stetler. "I thought (Link and Homan) did a nice job today helping each other. I thought our guards did a nice job getting (the ball) to them. The execution was good today."
Greenville stayed close with Celina in the first half, trailing 27-22 at the half thanks to the shooting of Macie Blinn, who had 12 points at the half. In the second half, Celina picked up the defense on Blinn. Betsy Hone kept close tabs and held Blinn to just eight points in the second half. Blinn's 20 points came on 7-of-25 shooting from the floor, including a 4-of-11 day from beyond the three-point line.
"Betsy did a nice job in the second half on Blinn," said Stetler. "She's a really good player and Betsy got after it defensively and stepped it up a bit. I thought that helped not only our defense, but also our offense."
Greenville could only get as close as five points in the second half before Celina went on a big run sparked when Hone was fouled trying to shoot a three-pointer. Hone sank the trey and hit the free throw for the four-point play to put Celina up 42-30 with 3:38 left in the quarter. From there, Celina outscored Greenville 10-8 the rest of the period to take a 52-38 lead into the fourth quarter.
Celina kept pushing its lead, getting up by 20 several times in the fourth quarter before Stetler cleared his bench.
The Bulldogs dominated the boards, outrebounding the Wave 37-25 and limiting Greenville to just 31.6 percent field-goal shooting (18-of-57).
"I thought our kids executed well today," said Stetler. "That was the name of the game. They finished when they needed to finish and made the plays today. That was good to see today."
Hone added 11 points to the Celina cause while Kelsey Waterman came off the bench for nine points.
Lisa Brinley came off the Greenville bench to add nine points.
Celina is back in action on Tuesday, traveling to the Hangar in Maria Stein to face Marion Local. |
