Flyers win OVISCO title

CELINA - Marion Local defeated Coldwater 50-38 to win the 34th annual OVISCO Classic Championship Monday night at the Fieldhouse.

The battle-tested Flyers improved to 10-0 with some big Midwest Athletic Conference games on deck.

"This team is very resilient," Marion Local coach Beth Streib said. "We have so many weapons offensively. … Alana (Pohlman) didn't score tonight, but Heidi Rethman stepped up huge. Olivia DeMange typically doesn't score much, but she stepped up and really hit some big shots, especially in the first half. I just think defensively we play such good team defense and we're quick enough and physical enough to compete."

St. Henry, a 54-22 victor over Celina in the OVISCO consolation game, gets its shot at Marion Local on Thursday in Maria Stein.

Coldwater (4-5) gave Marion Local all it could handle, but the Flyers outscored the Cavaliers 16-7 in the fourth quarter to secure another victory.

"I thought we were right there," Coldwater coach Keenan Leichty said. "I thought we were patient. I thought the girls battled. They executed the game plan that we had coming in."

The teams were neck at neck most of the way Monday, but the Cavs never got control.

Marion Local was up 20-7 in the first quarter and threatening to run away when Coldwater dug in. The Cavs ended the frame on a 6-0 run, capped by Lauren Gilliland's deep 3-pointer. The game was tight from that point on.

"(Rethman) was on fire," coach Leichty said. "(Olivia DeMange) was on fire. I thought we did a little bit of a better job identifying, and then we did a pretty decent job of getting out and running a little bit, getting out and finding our rim runner. We just did a better job executing. We kind of got into a rhythm a little better when we were running our stuff."

The Flyers held a 32-27 lead at halftime. Gilliland and Marion's Heidi Rethman each scored 14 in the half for their teams.

After all that scoring in the first half, the teams combined for just six points in the third quarter. A bucket just before the buzzer by Coldwater's Riley Rismiller made it 34-31.

Marion went on a 6-2 run in the first 3 minutes of the fourth. A 3 by Kate Leichty pulled Coldwater back to within four but the score never got closer.

Sammy Hoelscher drove into the paint and dished to Rethman for a 15-foot jumper with 1:40 left. That duo followed with free throws to ice it.

"We obviously knew we were going to have to stop Leichty and Gilliland. We didn't do a very good job of that in the first half," Streib said. "We stepped up defensively big on those two in the second half."

Rethman scored a game-high 20 points for Marion. Brooke Homan and Olivia DeMange each added nine.

Gilliland had 18 points and eight rebounds for Coldwater. Kate Leichty scored 10, and Rismiller had 11 rebounds.

The Cavaliers will get another crack at the Flyers on Feb. 13 at the Palace.

Consolation game
St. Henry 54,
Celina 22

St. Henry bounced back from Saturday's loss to Coldwater in the OVISCO semifinal by taking down Celina in Monday's consolation game.

Then St. Henry coach Kyle Menchhofer turned his attention to Marion Local.

"That was a tough one on Saturday," Menchhofer said. "We've got to learn to bounce back from tough situations, so we've got to get ready for Marion on Thursday. That's a big MAC game at Marion. We'll see how things go. We've got two days to get ready for them.

"Our kids played well tonight, but I'm focused on Marion."

Nora Vaughn scored 17 points, Addy Vaughn and Alyssa Buschur had 14 each as the Redskins put away the Bulldogs quickly for a second time in exactly two weeks. On Dec. 16 in St. Henry, the Redskins defeated the Bulldogs 63-25. The Redskins were red hot in that one and shot it well in this one, too.

In the first 2 1/2 minutes of the game, Nora Vaughn had two 3s and an offensive putback. Alyssa Buschur knocked down a trey and Addy Vaughn added an inside hoop to punctuate a 13-4 game-opening run which forced Celina coach Kenzie Rushton to call a timeout with 4:42 left in the first.

St. Henry (7-3) led 17-4 after one quarter, 35-9 at halftime and 43-14 after three.  

Taylor Klingshirn led Celina (3-6) with 11 points.