A grand senior night for Ottawa in win over Streator

OTTAWA — Ottawa senior guard Marlie Orlandi has definitely had up and down moments in her high school basketball career.

As a sophomore, the Pirates’ standout earned all-state honors for her play on the court, but then a knee injury that summer forced her to miss all of last season.

In Thursday’s senior night 59-15 victory against Streator in Kingman Gymnasium, it was another high time for Orlandi. Her 3-pointer from the right wing with just over a minute to play before halftime finished off her game-high 16-point night, while also giving her exactly 1,000 career points.

“I knew I needed 16 points tonight for 1,000,“ said Orlandi, who is now the sixth player in program history to reach the milestone. ”After my sophomore year my goal was to be the all-time leading scorer, but after missing last season I had to change my goals.”

Orlando hit 4 of 9 shots from the arc and had three rebounds, three assists and six steals.

“This is a big accomplishment and milestone for me,” Orlandi said. “Last year really bumped me down as far as realistic goals I wanted to reach. Knowing only five other girls have ever reached 1,000 points in their Ottawa careers is pretty special to me.

“I’d like to also thank all of my coaches and teammates throughout my career here at Ottawa. They really helped make this night possible.”

Ottawa (21-7) led 11-5 after the opening quarter before outscoring the Bulldogs 21-2 in the second quarter to hold a 32-7 lead at the intermission.

After Orlandi, all seven seniors contributed to the win, including Addison Miller (three points, four rebounds, four assists), Skylar Dorsey (12 points, 4 of 7 3s, four rebounds, two assists), Ella Schmitz (10 points, three rebounds, four assists, four steals), Hailey Larsen (two points, three rebounds), Ayla Dorsey (eight points, four rebounds), Ainsley Leonard (four points, five rebounds) and Charlie Maierhofer (two points, one assist).

“I remember when this senior group came in as freshmen, and it’s hard to believe we were celebrating them tonight as seniors,“ Ottawa coach Brent Moore said. ”Time sure does fly. They have all done so much for this program over these past four years. They are all high-character kids who are all going to be very successful in life.

“It was truly a storybook ending for Marlie in her time here in Kingman Gym. Last year was very, very tough for her. Basketball is her life, and she’s good at it. She does so many great things on the basketball floor, and scoring is just one piece. She is just an overall, well-rounded basketball player, and I’m glad she’s on our side.”

Ava Gwaltney led Streator with eight points, while Leah Krohe had three points and a game-best nine rebounds.

“Ottawa came out with the energy you’d figure they would have on senior night,“ Streator coach Jacob Durdan said, his squad falling to 2-29 on the season. ”On top of that they shot the ball very well from the arc and just killed us on the boards.

“I thought we cleaned our rebounding up in the second half, and I thought at times we did a good job of getting and staying in our offense. Ottawa always does a great job of taking you out of things you want to do offensively.

“I credit our girls, because they keep hustling and keep battling.”

The two sides will meet again at 6 p.m. Tuesday in the semifinals of the Class 3A Kankakee Regional semifinals.