Girls Basketball: Ottawa, L-P win final pool play games at Lady Pirate Holiday Tournament

OTTAWA – The final girls basketball games in pool play were completed Monday night at the 35th annual Ottawa Lady Pirate Holiday Tournament at Kingman Gymnasium.

Ottawa 49, Streator 12

Ottawa led 6-4 with just less than two minutes to play in the first quarter after an offensive rebound and basket by Streator’s Marisa Vickers. But then the Pirates put together a game-changing 18-0 run over the next 6:41 to run away with the win over the Route 23 rival Bulldogs.

The burst – mostly coming off turnovers – started with a layup by Zoe Harris, continued with a three-point play from Marlie Orlandi, three hoops from Grace Carroll and another from Molly Buscher and ended with a 3-pointer and lay-in by Brooke Waddell.

“It was a slow start for us, especially on the defensive end,” said Ottawa coach Brent Moore, his club forcing seven turnovers in the first quarter and 20 for the game. “I took a time out there early, and I thought coming out of that discussion of how we had talked about being aggressive defensively in our pregame talk, we did a much better job. The girls picked it up a notch after that.”

Waddell finished with a game-best 17 points, including 5 of 10 from the arc, while Carroll posted eight points, three assists and five steals. Harris had seven points and nine rebounds, and Orlandi finished with seven points, five boards and a pair of steals.

After starting the game with a 10-foot jumper from Charlee Bourell, before the putback by Vickers – who led the Bulldogs with four points and six rebounds – Streator missed its next 11 shots.

“The first six minutes we were in it, but I also knew we would probably struggle against Ottawa’s man-to-man pressure, and we did,” SHS coach Beau Albert said. “We were able to get some open looks that wouldn’t fall, but we also weren’t able to create as many as we would have liked off the dribble and kicking. We also didn’t take of the ball in the first half, and we gave up way too many second, third and fourth chances on the defensive end with not controlling rebounds.”

Ottawa now plays Canton at 6 p.m. Tuesday in the first-place bracket semifinal, while Streator will play Pontiac at noon and Morris at 3 p.m. Wednesday in a 9th-place round robin.

La Salle-Peru 52, Pontiac 42

In the deepest depths of a coach’s soul wins are a great thing, but there are times when how the victory was secured doesn’t sit too well in the overall picture of what they wanted the team to accomplish.

The Cavaliers led the Indians, 13-7, after the opening quarter and, 28-16, at halftime, and held their biggest advantage of the game at 36-18 with 5:20 left in the third. Pontiac was able to cut the disadvantage to 13 entering the fourth period and sliced it to nine before L-P closed things out.

“Our focus was way off again tonight, and that’s two games in a row this has happened,” La Salle-Peru coach Hollis Vickery said. “I don’t know if it’s Christmas break or that Pontiac was 1-10. But Pontiac isn’t a bad team despite the record and not a team you can just show up and walk around. My hope is that we come back here (Tuesday) with a ton better focus and get into a rhythm.”

L-P (9-2) received a game-high 22 points, 11 in each half, four assists and four steals from Brooklyn Ficek. Addison Duttlinger had nine points, three rebounds and three steals, Taylor Martyn seven points, nine rebounds and a blocked shot, and Jenisis Greening six points, six rebounds, two assists and two steals.

Pontiac was paced by 16 points and nine rebounds from Bailey Masching, while Mackenzie Coates added eight points and four rebounds.

The key stretch in the game was the Cavaliers’ 7-0 run late in the second – with Martyn hitting a 3 and Hannah Salazar and Ficek scoring off fast-break chances – to push the lead to double digits.

“We are normally a pretty good team when we can get into transition,” said Vickery, his club forcing 23 turnovers. “But too many times we had a chance to push the ball and just froze. There were stretches where we rebounded well and did the things we needed to do, but overall it was a very frustrating game to watch from a coaching standpoint.”

L-P now will play Joliet Catholic at 3 p.m. Tuesday in the 5th-place game.