Ottawa dominates Streator in Class 3A Kankakee Regional semifinal

KANKAKEE – As it did in the regular-season finale five days ago, the Ottawa girls basketball team raced out quickly against Streator in Tuesday’s Class 3A Kankakee Regional semifinal.

The No. 2-seeded Pirates, using a combination of hot shooting from the perimeter and swarming defense, scored the contest’s opening 12 points and eventually secured a 52-12 victory over the No. 9-seeded Bulldogs.

It was the eighth straight win for Ottawa (23-7), which advances to play host Kankakee, a 50-47 winner over Pontiac in the night’s second semifinal, at 7 p.m. Thursday.

Ottawa will be looking for its first regional championship since 2013.

“We talked about bringing high energy right from the start tonight, and I felt like we did a good job with that,” said Ottawa assistant coach Ryan Gunderson, who filled in for head coach Brent Moore, who missed the game because of illness.

“It always starts for us on the defensive end of the floor, and that was true again tonight. We missed a few shots early on, but then we turned around and forced some turnovers, got some steals and turned them into transition baskets. I thought our communication was good, and we ran the floor well.”

Ottawa senior guard Ella Schmitz opened the game with a 3-pointer from the right corner a minute in before senior forward Hailey Larsen converted back-to-back steals into layups. Schmitz then also turned a steal into a hoop before draining another 3 to make it 12-0 with 3 minutes, 5 seconds left in the first quarter.

Streator senior Leah Krohe broke the steak with a free throw, but Ottawa’s Addyson Miller came off the bench to swish a pair of triples ahead of another layup by Schmitz and a long 2-pointer just before the buzzer by Mary Stisser to extend the lead to 22-3.

Schmitz finished with a game-high 18 points to lead Ottawa. Larsen added 10 points, four rebounds, six steals and three blocks, while Stisser ended with seven points and five assists. Marlie Orlandi grabbed a game-best 12 rebounds.

“Addyson Miller, Ella Schmitz and Hailey Larsen really played well for us tonight,” Gunderson said. “Ella hit a couple 3s in the first quarter, then Hailey made a handful of great defensive plays, and then Addyson knocked down a couple from the arc. I thought we played well overall as a team, but those three girls really stood out for us.”

The action slowed down in the second quarter as Ottawa outscored Streator 6-3, but the Pirates opened the second half on a 13-0 run and eventually forced a running-clock in the forth.

Krohe had six points and seven rebounds for the Bulldogs, with Audrey Arambula (three steals) and Ava Gwaltney (seven rebounds, four steals) each scoring three.

“Ottawa is the team we are striving to become,” Streator coach Jacob Durdan said, his club finishing the season 2-30. “This was Year 3 of working to get closer to that level, and while they might not have been as big of steps as we would have like to have taken, I thought we did that.

“We doubled our win total from last season, and we had a number of games where we either had the lead at halftime or deep into the second half. We were just more competitive this year, and hopefully the girls we have returning will give us their time and work in the offseason toward improving again next season.

“Again, tonight the first quarter was a rough one for us, but in the second we switched to man defense, and I thought, other than not scoring on our end, did a pretty good job of holding Ottawa to six points. I felt like we took them a little out of rhythm, which was a positive for us.”