Columbus Grove slows down Polar Bears

BLUFFTON — Columbus Grove's defense frustrated Margaretta all night. The Bulldogs limited the Polar Bears to 7-for-36 shooting from the field and rolled past Margaretta 57-23 in a Division VI girls basketball regional semifinal at Bluffton University on Thursday. "When you get to this point, you're going to be playing good teams," Margaretta coach Ray Neill said. "You need your 'A' game and unfortunately, we didn't have it. They brought it; they shot the lights out. Their coach told me they haven't shot it like that all year. Kudos to them having that type of game in this environment." Columbus Grove won its 13th straight game to improve to 24-2. The Bulldogs will play Patrick Henry for a regional championship Saturday. Margaretta trailed 8-6 late in the first quarter and Dani Grunden scored four straight points to cut Grove's lead to 25-14 with 2:15 left in the second quarter. The Bulldogs answered with an 8-0 run, capped by an off-balance 3-pointer at the buzzer by standout senior guard Lauryn Auchmuty. "That made the mountain pretty high to climb," Neill said. Auchmuty, Columbus Grove's all-time leading scorer, finished with 17 points. She will play college ball for The University of Findlay. "I did it once during the season and I didn't think it was gonna go in and it did," Auchmudy said. "I did it in a couple practices. This was the kind of shot I've done before. I saw the clock going down and I said, Why not? There's less than two seconds so I'm gonna throw it up and it went in." Auchmuty had plenty of help. Junior center Nicole Nesby finished with 14 points and nine rebounds while battling with Margaretta junior post Cassidy Lane, who had 10 points and six boards. Nesby made 7 of 8 shots from the field — matching Margaretta's field goal total in the game. "Margaretta has a really nice post player in Cassidy Lane," Grove coach Brian Schroeder said. "We were a little bit worried about how that matchup would go, but Nicole stepped up and played great offensively and defensively." Columbus Grove's defense never gave the Bears good looks and Margaretta was 0 for 10 from 3-point range. "We were in our standard 1-2-2 press and into our 2-3 zone," Schroeder said. "We do some different things out of it. We play good defense, but you're in a different venue. You're shooting on portable rims and the walls are further back. As you get a little fatigue all those factors come into play." Added Neill: "They've got players and were very aggressive. We weren't able to regroup and get rid of some negativity that they instilled in us. The goal at halftime was to get it to 10 going into the fourth quarter." Margaretta scored the first three points of the third quarter, but the Bulldogs answered with a 10-0 run to close out the quarter with a commanding 43-17 lead. Allison Thompson finished with 11 points for Grove — nine of them in the second quarter. With 4:16 left in the first half, standout Margaretta senior Raegan Heck entered the game. She missed several weeks with a severely sprained ankle. Heck finished with two points and moved with a limp. Margaretta finished the season 20-6 while making its third-straight regional trip. Five seniors played their last game for the Bears — Grunden, Heck, Julia Berg, Grace Paseka and Mattie Kovalaske. "We lost the game tonight, but we accomplished so much this year through adversity," Neill said. "Injury after injury after injury from the summer to the beginning of the season to the end of the season. The girls persevered through that. We were an undefeated conference champion and regional participants. There are a lot of teams that would take that in a heartbeat. "They're disappointed right now, but it's the coaching staff's job to pick them back up and let them know what borderline great things they accomplished, especially our seniors. The last three years we're talking final four, regional finals and regional semifinals, 20-win seasons. That's a whole lot of good basketball." COLUMBUS GROVE (24-2) Lauryn Auchmuty 6 2-4 17, Ruth Myers 2 0-0 5, Allison Thompson 5 0-0 11, Kendal Palte 1 0-0 2, Nicole Nesby 7 0-2 14, Aubrey Schroeder 1 1-2 3, Zoey Patchet 1 0-0 2, Saige Benroth 1 0-0 3. TOTALS 24 3-8 57 MARGARETTA (20-6) Julia Berg 0 2-2 2, Cassidy Lane 2 6-8 10, Ellyse Schaefer 1 0-0 2, Kenadie Saylor 0 1-2 1, Dani Grunden 3 0-0 6, Raegan Heck 1 0-0 2. TOTALS 7 9-12 23 Columbus Grove 16 17 10 14 — 57Margaretta 8 6 3 6 — 23 Three-point goals: Columbus Grove 6 (Auchmuty 3, Myers, Thompson, Benroth); Margaretta 0