VAN WERT - For the past two years the road to Columbus for the girls basketball tournament has run through the Division IV District Tournament at Van Wert. Kalida took a step toward punching their ticket with a 38-30 victory over Delphos St. John's on Thursday night.
The Wildcat defense was on their toes to start the game but cold does not begin to describe just how icy St. John's shooting touch was on the night and the turnover bug bit them early as well. While Kalida's point guard, Stacie Heitmeyer, was slashing and penetrating her way to six points in the opening quarter, Delphos remained scoreless until only 6.5 seconds remained in the period. Post player Lindsy Reindel got loose underneath on an eight-foot jumper that she banked home to cut the score to 8-2 but that was only one of five field goal attempts they would take in the period. In comparison, the Jays had eight turnovers.
But in the second quarter, Delphos righted the ship and began cutting into the lead. Kalida was in a 2-3 zone that extended high into the lane and, while it shut off the inside, it left Becca Saine open for a three-pointer and a moment later, Reindel put back a shot and made the free throw on the foul for a three-point play. Heitmeyer continued to score on slashing drives and Emily Turnwald added one of her own but nothing else was falling for the Wildcats from the outside. At the halftime break, Kalida was clinging to a 15-12 lead.
The third quarter caused some scary moments for the Wildcat faithful. Reindel scored again inside the paint but Kalida's Julia Fuerst answered with her first points of the game off the block. Both teams traded points until Saine drilled a trey from the right corner to tie the game and then another on the next trip to give St. John's their first lead of the night with only 1:26 left in the period. But according to Delphos coach Dan Grothouse, the turning point of the game came next.
"Right at the end of the third quarter when we had made a great run, we were up three and they had the ball. We were talking on the bench, we need to make a stop because if they score, they had the ball to start the fourth quarter. And they were able to get a shot off and score and then they scored the first possession of the fourth quarter. Now we're down right there and we never got the momentum back."
Turnwald was the Kalida player who got loose underneath on the baseline and made the drive at the buzzer to cut the lead to 23-22 at the end of three quarters. Then it was Kalida going back inside to Fuerst on the block for an old-fashioned three-point play to start the fourth and grab the lead. St. John's got used to seeing the Wildcats going to the line and making them as the period went on. While the game was still in doubt, Kalida sent four different players to the line who combined to go 10 for 10 from the charity stripe. Meanwhile for St. John's, except for two Reindel put backs and another Saine three when the game was out of reach, they could not find a way to get the ball in the bucket.
"You've got to give credit to Kalida," said Grothouse. "They were very physical inside, took us out of our offense in their man and in their zone."
For his part, Kalida coach Karl Lammers wanted to talk about how well his team had played on defense.
"Defensively, they did most of the things we wanted to do," he said after the game. "We lost track of Saine a few times - she's a player, she's going to knock down her threes - but they did a whale of a job on our main focus, Zefiryn Bryan. We dug hard on Reindel every time she got it and made her kick it out. The combination of everything led to a (good) victory for them."
Stacie Heitmeyer led Kalida with 14 points and Julia Fuerst added 11, all in the second half. St. John's was led by Lindsy Reindel's 15 points and Becca Saine's 12, all on treys. Reindel made it a double-double night with ten rebounds as well.
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