Girls basketball: High-pressure Ottawa steamrolls previously undefeated Princeton

OTTAWA – Both the Princeton and Ottawa girls basketball teams, with records of 10-0 and 9-3, respectively, entered Thursday night’s nonconference matchup in Kingman Gym expecting a major challenge.

For the Tigers, it turned out to be their stiffest test to date.

For the Pirates, it wound up being not as challenging as they expected.

Ottawa’s defense forced turnovers on four of Princeton’s first five possessions and 10 in total in the opening period, turning most of those into 18 of the first 22 points of the game on their way to a 62-31, running-clock victory over the Tigers.

Marlie Orlandi poured in 22 points and accounted for five steals and five rebounds, while Grace Carroll added 14 points, four rebounds and six steals to lead the high-pressure, up-tempo onslaught that would induce the visitors into 26 turnovers and 25.5% shooting (13 of 51) on the night.

The hosts, meanwhile, connected on a season-best 10 3-pointers in 23 tries and saw Ella Schmitz chip in 11 points, Kendall Lowery nine points and seven rebounds, and Hailey Larsen six assists and three steals to help turn the win into a romp.

For Princeton, Keighley Davis collected 12 points, Olivia Gartin six points and seven boards, and Camryn Driscoll six points and two steals.

However, those efforts were not enough to overcome the Pirates’ pressure at both ends of the court, as they rolled to leads of 18-4 in the first period, 28-7 in the second and 45-12 in the third.

“Our No. 1 objective tonight was to run the floor, get out in transition and try to get some easy baskets,” Ottawa coach Brent Moore said. “Because they sit in the zone consistently through all four quarters as we saw on film, we felt if we could get pressure outside into the passing lanes and get some run-outs and easy transition that it would cause them to extend their zone, and we’d have more opportunities in the paint and work inside-out more.

“Give our girls credit. We had struggled shooting from the field of late, but we’ve preached to them this is who we are: we run, we shoot a lot of 3s and we play tough defense, and tonight we shot the ball with a lot of confidence, let them fly and had some fun.”

That self-assuredness was evident from the get-go. Ottawa canned four of its first five tries, a trey by Lowery and then layups off turnovers by Lowery, Orlandi and Carroll for a 9-0 lead.

After deuces by Gartin and Davis got the Tigers going, the Pirates ran off nine more thanks to Carroll, with her drive, her 3 and her fast-break bucket around her assist on a Schmitz hoop for that 18-4 margin.

It was more of the same around the half, with four treys and 15 points by Orlandi fueling a 27-5 rally stretching from the final 30 seconds of the first period to 4:47 of the third, when a 3-pointer by Schmitz created that 45-12 advantage.

“Tough one,” said Princeton coach Darcy Kepner, whose team trailed 57-20 heading into the fourth stanza of their first loss of the year. “We knew coming in this would be our hardest test, and I think we needed a game like this to humble us a little bit. It will get us in the gym and keep us working hard on the things we saw we need to improve on, things to get better at so that something like this doesn’t happen again.

“We just didn’t handle the ball well enough and value the ball enough against their man pressure, turned it over way too much and just couldn’t get anything going in the half-court. … They’re hard to defend, too, and continued to hit shots.

“It was just not our night, so we’ll respond and get better tomorrow.”