Clutch performance

CELINA - The weather may be too cold for trips to the amusement parks, but the Celina girls basketball team had a roller-coaster of a game on Monday night.

Celina led 26-13 at one point in the third quarter, only to have Defiance tie the game on a buzzer-beater at the end of the third quarter. Celina held ground, holding Defiance scoreless for the first half of the final quarter to build a lead and hanging on for a 43-36 victory in the battle of Bulldogs in a rescheduled Western Buckeye League game at the Fieldhouse. The win was Celina's second league win of the season and fourth overall.

Celina was having a strong game for the first 2 1/2 quarters, leading 13-9 after one quarter and outscoring Defiance 11-4 in the second quarter to take a 24-13 lead at the half. Celina got an early score in the third quarter to double up Defiance.

Then Olivia Moats found her shooting touch.

The Defiance senior guard knocked down two 3-pointers to trim the margin to 28-21 with 3 1/2 minutes to play in the the quarter. Taylor Klingshirn got a bucket to stop the run, but Tierra Harrison scored to cut the margin to 30-23. Klingshirn hit a free throw with 1:27 left, but Defiance scored the final eight points of the quarter, the final three on a Moats trey right at the buzzer to tie the game for the first time since the first quarter at 31-all.

"We knew they were going to come out and throw a punch," said Celina coach Branden Rushton. "Moats is a good shooter and she hit some tough shots. Our big thing was to stay composed and to not let her hitting shots let us get down on ourselves and keep doing what we were doing."

The Bulldogs, with just one senior - Zoey Burns, who was honored before the game - on the roster, quickly regained momentum. Kyilla Billingsley got a bucket to fall 14 seconds into the final quarter to put Celina back in front, and Defiance turned the ball over on missed shots on its first six possessions of the quarter.

Billingsley added another bucket and Klingshirn got the hoop-and-harm 3-point play to put Celina in front 38-31 before Mira Horvath snapped Defiance's cold spell with a free throw with 4:11 to play. Moats hit her fourth trey of the half to get Defiance within three, but Klingshirn returned the favor with a long-distance jumper of her own at the 1:53 mark to make it 41-35.

Maddi Bloomfield hit a free throw with 1:40 to play, but that was all for Defiance as Celina, which missed two straight front ends of one-and-ones, iced the game with 10 seconds left as Klingshirn sank two freebies.

"The name of the game for us is defense," said Rushton. "The shots will start to fall (Celina was just 32.6% from the floor in the game), but we know if we get stops, we'll be in every game."

Klingshirn finished with 20 points and eight rebounds to lead Celina. Billingsley and Ava Knapke each had eight points.

Moats was 5-of-11 from the 3-point line to lead Defiance with 15 points. Horvath added 11.

Celina is back in action tonight with a road trip to Fort Recovery before traveling to Wapakoneta on Thursday to wrap up WBL and regular season play.