February, 16,2000

Rams get 59-51 over Columbain

By Dave Feltner
Sports Editor

lUPPER SANDUSKY &emdash; The chant came much louder from the Upper Sandusky side: NOL! NOL! NOL!

Although Columbian and Upper Sandusky shared the bragging rights of a Northern Ohio League championship, it was clear the Rams owned the moment.

Upper Sandusky pieced together enough spurts to come away with a 59-51 victory over Columbian, spoiling what could have been a outright championship for the Tornadoes.

Instead, the Rams, Tornadoes and also Willard &emdash; 71-46 winners over Shelby &emdash; all share the league crown.

It has been a tough road the past week for the Rams to get to the NOL summit, but they completed the journey. Upper Sandusky knocked Willard out of the top spot last week, and Tuesday night it was TC's turn to play the victim's role.

"We had a long, tough road just to get to this point," Upper Sandusky coach Andra Bell said. "We had to win at Bellevue and at Galion. The fact that these kids stayed tough throughout and did this tonight is a tribute to their character. When it was all on the table they got it done.

"Tiffin has to be disappointed in the loss, but they played hard and well," she said. "They were a class act."

That's true. Columbian did play well, but only in stretches. And when they didn't, Upper Sandusky took full advantage.

The player who took the most was Lyndsey DeWitt, who scored from all over the floor in totaling 32 points and seven rebounds.

Each time Columbian made a run, DeWitt was there with an answer.

The biggest one came at the end of the third quarter when Columbian looked like it was going to erase a 15-point deficit.

The Tornadoes' Erin Moore was essentially taking the game into her own hands. Moore blocked a pair of DeWitt's shots, one of them resembling a volleyball kill, which led to a pair of layups at the other end.

She also scored three baskets to help reduce a 37-22 deficit to 37-34 with 1:27 left in the third.

But DeWitt answered with a pair of 3-pointers, one of them from NBA range, in the final minute to push it back to 43-26 for the start of the fourth.

"I was real proud of our kids to climb back into this game," Columbian coach Larry Kisabeth said. "They took it one possession at a time, and fought back two or three times. But Lyndsey DeWitt showed tonight why she is the league's leading scorer. She had a great game. Just a great game."

The Tornadoes got to within three on two occasions in the fourth, but with the score 49-46 DeWitt took control again.

She first hit a medium-range jumper after double-pumping in mid-air, then hit a 19-footer to make it 53-46.

The Tornadoes never got closer.

DeWitt was the Rams' only double figure scorer, but Jessica Falk finished with nine and Sara Deer and Meghan Horn had eight apiece.

"Sara Deer played a great game for us and hit two huge baskets for us in the second half," Bell said. "She hasn't been scoring much lately, but she stepped up tonight. And speaking of stepping up, Lyndsey DeWitt played an outstanding game. She rose to the occasion and hit some big buckets when we needed them."

Moore finished with 24 points, six rebounds and five blocked shots to lead Columbian. Anna Fretz had 12 points and Katie Fazekas, who became TC's all-time assists leader, had eight.

"We really felt that we had to stop their spurts (to get back into the game)," Kisabeth said. "And then we had to start rebounding better. We also went to a 2-1-2 zone to stop their penetration, and I think that confused them for a while. But, then again, we had to get out of that because DeWitt sat on the wing and hit 3s.

"They just had too much firepower for us tonight," he said. "Hats off to Upper. They knocked Willard out of first place Friday night, and we were the third tough game in a row for them, but they played very well."