Kalida’s Luke Erhart drives to the basket against Ottoville’s Josh Thorbahn during Friday night’s game in Ottoville.
Kelli Cardinal | The Lima News
OTTOVILLE — Kalida knew Ottoville’s height advantage could be an issue.
And it certainly was.
However, Kalida’a defensive effort slowed down Ottoville just enough, and the Wildcats made enough plays in the second overtime session to come away with a thrilling 52-49 double overtime victory against Ottoville at L.W. Heckman Gymnasium in a key Putnam County League boys basketball matchup Friday night.
Luke Erhart led Kalida (13-3, 4-1 PCL) with 14 points and 10 rebounds. Trevor Lambert added 13 points and five boards for the Wildcats.
Josh Thorbahn, a 6-foot-3 freshman, led Ottoville (13-5, 2-3 PCL) with 16 points and six rebounds. Ryan Suever scored 12 points and had a game-high 16 boards for the Big Green.
“It’s a heck of a rivalry, and I think there were two pretty good teams on the floor tonight,” Kalida coach Ryan Stechschulte said. “They battled really hard and we ended up making a couple more plays in overtime.
“They were really good, defensively. It was difficult to score in the paint. Their length bothered us, but kudos to our kids for a really gutty defensive effort.”
The game was knotted at 37 apiece at the end of regulation.
By the end of the first overtime session, the game was tied at 43.
In the second OT, Kalida made enough plays and got to the free throw line to hold off the Big Green.
“They are explosive, offensively,” Stechschulte said. “We were really concerned about their ability to score points.”
After a tightly-contested first quarter, Ottoville slipped out with a 9-7 lead by the first stop.
However, Kalida responded.
Kalida opened the second quarter on a 9-0 run, pushing out to a 16-9 lead. Grant Laudick (nine points) led the charge for Kalida, scoring a field goal and a 3-pointer in that spurt.
The Wildcats went into the halftime break with a 25-16 lead.
Kalida shot 7 of 13 from the field in the second quarter. Laudick and Erhart led the Wildcats with seven points each – all in the second quarter. Both Laudick and Erhart hit 3-pointers in the second stanza.
Ottoville cut the deficit to 5, 29-25 with less than three minutes to play in the third quarter, on a 3-pointer by Josh Thornbahn.
Kalida led 30-29 at the third stop.
In the third quarter, Kalida struggled, hitting just 2 of 11 from the floor.
“We got stagnate, a little bit,” Stechschulte said about his team’s third-quarter performance. “We didn’t throw it into the paint. We settled for jumpers too many times.”
Kalida did not commit its first turnover until midway through the third quarter.
For the game, the Wildcats turned the ball over four times, while Ottoville turned it over 10 times.
“We did handle it (the defensive pressure),” Stechschulte said. “We did a good job of not giving them the ball. We got the ball in spots where we normally finish off, but their length down in the post and in the blocks bothered us. It was just a grind-it-out game.”
Kalida shot 33 percent from the field, while Ottoville connected on 38 percent of its field goal attempts.
Ottoville won the boards, 38-32.
The Lima News sports department can be reached at 567-242-0451.
