It was youth versus experience when the Bulldogs of Otsego hosted the Bulldogs of Vicksburg in a Wolverine Conference girls’ basketball clash on Tuesday, Dec. 17.
And on this night, youth won out.
Otsego, which features a roster with no seniors and only two returning players, used a strong defensive effort to post the 43-26 victory over a Vicksburg squad that had the majority of its team return from last season.
“It was a nice win for us,” Otsego coach Tony Koshar said “Vicksburg is a team that returned everyone from last year, so it was nice to jump on them and keep our foot on the gas.”
Otsego led 9-6 after one quarter before using a 14-4 edge in the second stanza to take a 23-10 lead to halftime.
The strong defensive play continued in the second half, with Otsego limiting Vicksburg to eight points in each of the final two quarters.
Kaitlyn Payseno was at the forefront of the charge defensively, holding All-Conference player Hannah Vallier to eight points. Payseno also had eight points, six rebounds and three assists.
“Kaitlyn had a nice all-around game,” Koshar said. “She was the main component in frustrating Vallier.”
Payseno’s eight points were second on the team to Sabrina Powers, who led a balanced scoring attack with 11 points. That marked a career high for Powers.
“Sabrina Powers did a nice job from the point guard spot,” Koshar said. “She worked hard in the offseason and it’s paying benefits.”
Cali Miller and Kendra VanderLugt added seven points each. VanderLugt also pulled down a game-best seven rebounds, while Jayden Jameson had six rebounds and a team-best six assists.
“The girls are growing every day and they really executed the defensive game plan,” Koshar said. “We have started to minimize the turnovers some, although that still needs to get much better as we prepare for a tough stretch of our schedule.”
Otsego tried to keep its winning ways going three days later when it traveled to South Haven on Friday, Dec. 20. The Rams had other ideas, using a 16-7 scoring edge in the final quarter to hand the Bulldogs a 37-29 loss.
“We really struggled to shoot the ball all night and I felt as a young team we allowed that, along with some early foul trouble, to affect other parts of our game,” Koshar said.
Otsego, which was up 14-13 at halftime and 23-20 at the end of three quarters, and South Haven went back and forth in the final frame, with the Bulldogs taking a lead with less than two minutes to play. But the Rams responded with a 3-pointer and went 6-of-6 at the line down the stretch to pull away.
Olivia Stam had eight points in the losing cause, while VanderLugt had six and Miller had five.
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