ONTARIO — Before Thursday night the Galion girls basketball team had never won a game in the Mid Ohio Athletic Conference. That all changed when Galion defeated the Warriors 38-28.
Galion joined the MOAC in 2014-2015 season, but until this point have been unable to grab a conference win.
“We knew we had been playing good basketball. I always tell them we play well here. We believed tonight and everybody stepped up and had a good game, our whole starving five and our bench did an awesome job cheering tonight,” Galion head coach Shani Rush said.
In the win Dezi Lester had a very nice game with 15 points and played some solid defense.
“She was on fire yesterday in practice. We told her to continue and she did,” Rush said.
Natalee Perkins added nine points for the Tigers and Teanna Greter pitched in seven points. Emma Jutz scored five points and Cameron Eckert pitched in two points.
Ontario was led by Taylor Counts’ 14 points. Adrienne Kearns and Lizzie Nagel each added five points for the Warriors.
The first quarter was a slow pace matchup that would favor Galion 10-3 at the end. Tigers hopped off the bus ready to play.
Galion was able to take the momentum into the half, leading Ontario by a score of 23-13. Tigers led the Warriors 23-8 before Ontario was able to close out the half on a 5-0 run.
Lester canned three triples and scored 11 first half points for Galion. Counts paced Ontario with six first half points.
Tigers made four first half three-pointers, compared to two for the Warriors.
In the third quarter both teams traded buckets, but it would continue to be low-scoring. With a quarter to play Galion led Ontario 28-20.
“She’s a senior and a four-year varsity starter. I told her no more fouls. She gets tempted a lot, but she’s a smart player,” Rush explained.
After suffering her fourth foul late in the third quarter, Perkins played the entirety of the fourth without picking up her final foul. Galion was able to hold off a last punch from Ontario to make history for this team.
Galion (5-12, 1-9 Mid Ohio Athletic Conference) is off until next Wednesday when they will face county foe Bucyrus.
Ontario (3-14, 1-9 MOAC) will be back in action on Wednesday when it hosts Pleasant.
