By: Joe Blystone
THE VILLAGE REPORTER
publisher@thevillagereporter.com
WAUSEON (January 5, 2024) – Those who said that Bryan girls basketball may not be as good this season after last year’s Final Four run better get a second opinion.
The Golden Bears broke away from a four point second quarter spread against Wauseon with a massive 45-8 run, and chalked up a 60-24 NWOAL win over the Indians on the opening night of league play.
The Bears started out slow, shooting just 4/11 in the first quarter, but Anna Gray hit three of those field goals to push Bryan ahead 10-6.
Ella Rau’s three pointer gave the Bears a 15-6 lead before Wauseon mounted a rally, keyed by Aunali Reyes’ putback and Johanna Tester’s steal and score to get within 15-11 with 5:38 left in the half.
“The first quarter was a struggle because we didn’t make shots, and we have been in that boat before,” veteran Bryan coach Todd Grosjean explained.
“Credit to Wauseon, they were aggressive, they got their hands on a couple offensive rebounds and loose balls that we didn’t.”
From that point Bryan capitalized on a basketful of Wauseon turnovers to spark a 15-2 romp to finish the half.
Marah Smith knocked down a triple, then had a swipe and swoop to the rim to start the run. Gray scored on an inbounds play, Ella Vogt got a hoop off a turnover and Josey Arnold canned a triple off the last of the Indians 15 first half turnovers to give the Bears a 30-13 bulge.
“We ramped it up a little bit,” Grosjean said of the five minute burst that put the Golden Bears in control. “Our defense got us some transition baskets and runouts.”
“We had some deflections, I track those for our team, with our length. We went to a 1-3-1 and Ella Rau got a bunch of deflections out front and that got us going.”
While Bryan was using their length to harass the Indians to up-tempo the game, they were guilty of just three first half miscues handling the basketball.
Bryan’s scoring barrage continued into the third as they used a 21-6 quarter to put the game in the win column.
Smith, Arnold and Rau all laced shots from long distance, Gray had two buckets, one of which turned into a three point play and Kailee Thiel got two more hoops inside to increase the margin to 51-19 after the third.
Rau’s transition layup :50 seconds into the fourth put the game into running clock mode at 55-19.
Gray’s 15 led Golden Bear scorers while Thiel and Rau each had 11.
Bryan shot 23/47 from the floor and had a mere eight turnovers. Wauseon was 10/29 and were hindered by 27 turnovers.
BRYAN (60) – Zimmerman 0; Thiel 11; Voigt 5; Gray 15; Hanna 0; Brown 0; Rau 11; Smith 8; Arnold 7; Langham 3; Totals: 16-7-7 – 60
WAUSEON (24) – Stasa 5; Tester 6; Leatherman 0; Pelok 0; Coronado 2; Rupp 6; Reyes 5; Totals: 10-4 – 24
BRYAN 10 20 21 9 – 60
WAUSEON 6 7 6 5 – 24
JUNIOR VARSITY: Bryan, 39-27