TONTOGANY — With his game postponed Friday night, Genoa girls basketball coach Mike DeStazio sat in the
stands watching a Northern Buckeye Conference matchup between second-place Otsego and Lake.
DeStazio and his first-place Comets host the Knights next week. That contest just got a whole lot bigger.
After holding the slightest of two-point leads, Otsego thrashed the Flyers in the second half, propelling
themselves to a 52-29 win to stay one game behind Genoa (9-2 overall 5-0 NBC) in the loss column.
“They’re starting to feel it,” said Otsego coach Scott Bernthisel, whose team improved to 7-4, 5-1. “We
told them in the locker room after the game that they made a statement tonight.
“They do a lot of things Lake does,” Bernthisel added. “They’re quick, they’re aggressive, and they’ll
run and jump a little bit. Tonight was a good test.”
In fact, it was a test Otsego passed with flying colors.
Otsego turned a 20-18 halftime lead into a commanding, and all but game-ending 37-20 lead after three
quarters.
Abby Hesselschwardt led the Knights with 15 points, while Morgan Smoyer added 14 points, and Kim Forshey
had 12 points and 10 rebounds.
Otesgo used the wavering confidence of Lake (7-6, 3-3 NBC) and capitalized with a 10-0 run to open the
second half. Hesselschwardt, a 5-foot-10 post, dominated inside and scored six of her points in the
third quarter. Smoyer, at 5-11, had the final five points in the period. She scored 10 points in the
second half.
“We tried to increase the pressure and we got beat a little bit and they got some easy looks,” said Lake
assistant Jay Driftmyer after head coach Jim Gracyk was ejected 1:11 into the second quarter with two
technical fouls. “Fouls didn’t help us again and they started hitting shots. Their lead started to grow
and our confidence started to weaken.
“Defensively, we had some breakdowns in the half court caused some easy rebounding positions for them,”
Driftmyer added “When that happens and we’re not scoring, it turns ugly quick.”
Jordyn Taylor led the Flyers with 14 points. The senior point guard helped Lake hold a 12-10 advantage in
the second quarter where she scored seven of her points.
It was a point of emphasis for Bernthisel at halftime, and Otsego limited Taylor to just two second-half
points.
“It was just a matter of our girls of being aware and being out on her,” Bernthisel said.
“We weren’t shooting very well,” he added of Otsego’s first half. “We were playing a little tight. Lake,
the way they run and jump, they have a tendency to get you kind of scared. We just had to stay with what
we’ve been working on.”
After Otsego’s 10-0 run to open the second quarter, Alexis Hansen hit Lake’s lone bucket of the frame.
The Knights responded with a 14-0 run that spilled into the first half of the fourth quarter, giving
them a 44-20 lead with 5:20 to play.
“They played some great defense,” Bernthisel said of his team. “We’re making minor adjustments here and
there with our defense and they’re really doing a good job with it.
“We just keep getting better,” he said. “We’re working hard and playing good, team basketball. We still
have to work on some things — foul shots and passing the basketball.”
Otsego won the junior varsity game 47-41. Holly Roe led the Knights with 12 points, while Taylor Besgrove
scored 14 for Lake.
OTSEGO 52, LAKE 29
LAKE
Taylor, 5-1-1—14; Hodgson, 0-0—0; Brittenham, 0-1-0—3; K. Swartz, 1-0—2; Deal, 1-0—2; R. Swartz, 1-0—2;
Hansen, 1-1-0—5; Huston, 0-0—0; Frisinger, 0-0—0; Ozuk, 0-1—1. TOTALS: 9-3-2—29.
OTSEGO
Asmus, 2-0—4; A. Wenig, 0-0—0; M. Wenig, 0-0—0; Hesselschwardt, 6-3—15; Gray, 0-0—0; Weihl, 0-2—2;
Smoyer, 5-4—14; Forshey, 4-4—12; Varner, 0-0—0; Wynn, 2-1—5. TOTALS: 19-14—52.
LAKE 6 12 2 9 —29
OTSEGO 10 10 17 15 —52
Junior varsity: Otsego, 47-41.
