By Jason Wesseldyk
Sports Editor
OTSEGO—Thanks to its 45-30 win over Edwardsburg on Friday, Feb. 10, the Otsego girls basketball team pulled into a second-place tie in the Wolverine Conference standings with the Eddies.
The victory also snapped a long losing skid to Edwardsburg that dated back a half decade.
“This one was a long time coming, as it’s been five years since we last beat them,” Otsego coach Tony Koshar said.
The result of the game left Otsego and Edwardsburg with matching 6-4 records in the league. Vicksburg leads the conference at 11-0.
The game started as a game of runs.
After jumping out to a 5-0 lead, Otsego was on the wrong side of a 15-2 spurt that saw the Eddies go up 15-7. But back came the Bulldogs, reeling off 11 straight points to go up 18-15.
Edwardsburg then hit a 3-pointer to close out the second quarter and send the game to halftime deadlocked at 18-18.
The second half looked to be more of the same as, after a bucket by Edwardsburg to start the third quarter, Otsego went on a 9-0 run to take the 27-20 lead. The next six points belonged to the Eddies, narrowing the deficit to 27-26.
The remainder of the game was all Otsego, with the Bulldogs holding an 18-4 scoring advantage to pull away.
“We played a really solid second half and were eventually able to pull away and not look back,” Koshar said.
Taking care of the ball was a key to Otsego’s strong second-half showing.
“We really limited the turnovers in the second half as we only four compared to 13 in the first half,” Koshar said. “We also did a great job of closing the game out again by limiting turnovers, running some time and attacking and scoring when it was available.”
Koshar praised the play of Addison Milheim.
“I thought Addi really sparked us tonight,” he said. “She hit a three and had an assist that got us going on the 11-0 run in the first half.”
Aly Aldrich and Haley Guerrant led the Bulldogs (10-7 overall) with nine points each. Hannah Fitzpatrick and Tessa Prough were close behind with eight each.
Prough also had a team-best seven rebounds, with Guerrant, Fitzpatrick and Jenna Ballman going for five each. Olivia Dennis had four rebounds.
“Aly and Hannah were really solid and our posts Haley Guerrant, Tessa Prough and Olivia Dennis made it very difficult on Edwardsburg around the basket,” Koshar said.