By Jason Wesseldyk
Sports Editor
OTSEGO—It’s been said that good things come to those who wait.
That proved to be true for Otsego girls basketball coach Tony Koshar and his team as it related to the showdown with Sturgis.
The game, which featured the top two teams in the Wolverine Conference standings, was originally scheduled for Friday, Jan. 23, before being pushed to Monday, Jan. 26, due to inclement weather.
And it was the Bulldogs who survived for the 43-39 victory, moving them to 7-0 in the conference.
Sturgis slipped to 6-2 in league play, with both of those losses coming to Otsego.
“This was a big win for us,” Koshar said. “To take both games from Sturgis puts us in a good spot. But we still have half of our league games remaining, so we have to take care of business each time we step on the court.”
The Bulldogs’ lead stood at a razor-thin 40-39 late in the game when Audrey Lingbeek—the lone senior on the roster—buried a pair of free throws. To make it 42-39.
Then, following a defensive stop, Otsego got one free throw from Brooke Smalldon with 1.1 seconds remaining to effectively put the game away.
Lingbeek finished with 10 points, which was second on the team behind Mya Engber’s 12. Smalldon nearly gave the Bulldogs a third double-digit scorer, going for nine points.
Smalldon also snagged 12 rebounds.
Otsego struggled offensively for much of the first half, trailing 15-10 with about three minutes remaining in the first half.
But the Bulldogs closed the half on a high note, scoring the final eight points before halftime to take the 18-15 lead.
That momentum carried over the third quarter, as Otsego opening the frame on a 15-4 spurt to increase its advantage to 14 at 33-19.
But Sturgis wasn’t, to paraphrase Welsh poet Dylan Thomas, about to go quietly into that good night and closed the quarter with eight straight points. That narrowed the gap to 33-27, setting up the fourth-quarter dramatics.
