By James Massara

UPPER SANDUSKY – As cheers rang out from the visitor locker room at Upper Sandusky High School, Seneca East Girls Basketball Coach Don Vogt was all smiles. His Lady Tigers completed a goal set in the preseason by defeating Upper Sandusky in Northern 10 Athletic Conference, 45-41.

“We talked at the beginning of the season about knocking off one of the top three, which they haven’t done for quite a long time,” Vogt said. “I can’t explain how excited they are.”

The loss was Upper Sandusky’s third in four games.

“We’re in this funk for some reason, and hopefully we get out of it soon,” Upper Sandusky Coach Brent Fahle said. “I thought we played hard, just for some reason our shots weren’t falling right now.”

After taking a 3-1 lead halfway through the first quarter, Seneca East (12-4, 8-4 N10) managed to enter into halftime with a lead, and fight off a run by the Rams (12-4, 8-4 N10) to end the third quarter with a one-point, 32-31, lead.

To start the fourth quarter, Bonnie Bivens tried to single-handedly push the Lady Tigers in front of the Lady Rams for good, but Upper Sandusky had an answer.

Bivens did her work in the low post by scoring off an offensive rebound, only to be answered by the Lady Rams with a Madison McLaughlin basket. Bivens then received a pass from Jessica Bowerman for a basket that was answered by a pair of free throws by Upper Sandusky’s Abigail Fogle.

Bowerman then found Caylin Quiggle for a basket and then Bowerman scored a basket of her own to put Seneca East ahead of the Lady Rams, 40-35, with four minutes remaining in the game.

Vogt said it was Seneca East’s defense that gave the offense a chance to extend the lead.

“I think part of what caused that is we were doing a better job of helping off when the drives go down to the basket and we forced off balanced stuff and then managed to rebound,” Vogt said.

Throughout that span, the Lady Rams were unable to find the bottom of the net.

“I think we got a couple steals and then missed layups off of the steals,” Fahle said. “When you miss a layup, usually that turns into two points for them and I’d have to look at the film, but I’m pretty sure that’s what happened.”

Fogle ended the four-and-a-half minute scoring drought for Upper Sandusky with a basket with just more than two minutes remaining in the game, and was followed by a basket by McLaughlin 30 seconds later. 42-39

With less than 1:30 remaining, Upper Sandusky began to foul the Lady Tigers. It took multiple fouls to put Seneca East at the free throw line, as the Lady Rams had just one team foul up to that point.

Marina Adachi made both ends of a 1-and-1 free throw trip and Bivens connected on the front end of her attempt.

Megan Hensel made the final basket for the Lady Rams with 4.8 seconds remaining to reach the final score.

Seneca East won the junior varsity game, 46-42. Megan Rife led the Lady Tigers with 23 points and Reagan Ward led Upper Sandusky with 14 points.

Seneca East next travels to Mohawk on Tuesday, Jan. 30 with the junior varsity game beginning at 6 p.m., and Upper Sandusky travels to Bucyrus for a game at the same time.