Fort Loramie ousts Minster in titanic girls clash
By Tim Langevin
SPRINGFIELD – Deep down inside, Fort Loramie coach Carla Siegel had to be thinking, Clair Ruhenkamp and Janel Olberding need to perform big time in order for Loramie to knock off Minster.
Her concerns were addressed with an exclamation point!
“That was Loramie basketball,” said Siegel. “Our goal is to make life miserable for our opponents. I am so proud of this team. This was a great team win.”
Olberding dictated the tempo like Hitler and Ruhenkamp delivered on time like the paperboy. And The Lady Redskins romped to a 49-35 win in the regional semifinals Thursday evening before a standing-room-only crowd.
Olberding scored 15 points, including nine in the second quarter when Ruhenkamp was on the bench with foul trouble. The senior point guard grabbed six rebounds and accounted for four assists. She was 6-of-12 from the field and 2-of-2 at the line.
Minster coach Nann Stechschulte stated it best, “Loramie played great. It’s hard to come back against a team with a senior guard like Olberding who can penetrate, dish, and control the tempo.”
Ruhenkamp scored 17 points, including 13 in the second half. The senior post player was nearly perfect on the night, draining 6-of-7 from the field and 5-of-5 from the line.
Ruhenkamp said, “Oh, God. We wanted this bad. We’ve all been playing together for a long time. We all wanted it real bad. we knew we had to bring our A game and we did.”
The first 12 minutes of the contest lived up to the hype with four lead changes and four ties.
Minster scored first on a Kayla Wuebker drive down the middle and Ruhenkamp tied it with a bucket on the block. Delanie Wolf put the Wildcats ahead 4-2 on a stickback and then Tessa Benanzer knotted it with a nifty pull-up, 15-footer.
Benanzer turned in a steady performance with eight points. She was 3-of-6 from the field with her picture-perfect set shot.
Tori Maurer bombed a three from the perimeter and the Redskins led 9-6. But Wuebker answered with a turnaround 12-footer to slice the lead 9-8 after the opening stanza.
Wuebker finished with a team high 11 points on 5-of-7 shooting and kept Minster in it the first half.
Minster produced a mini 7-0 run to forge ahead 13-9. Heather Schmiesing scored in the paint on a nice feed from Maria Dahlinghaus and then Wuebker drained a three.
Olberding had seen enough. She banked a 12-footer from the right angle (John Wooden would’ve been pleased) and made 2-of-2 throws. The game was dead-locked at 13-13.
Olberding delivered a perfect bounce pass to a streaking Benanzer for the layup on a fast break. Then she added a three from the parking lot and capped it with a running floater along the baseline.
“We’ve worked our tails off. We don’t take anything for granted,” said Olberding. “We still have to step up to the plate. That heart-breaking loss last year has never gone away. Deep down inside we all want to redeem ourselves. Finish what was left undone last year.”
Fort Loramie led 24-17 at the break. And one could sense the Redskins were ready “for the kill.”
They stretched the lead 32-19 on a three-point-play by Ruhenkamp. It was her turn to take over and she responded with seven, third quarter tallies. She added a tricky 12-footer and another bucket in the paint.
Ruhenkamp said, “Its been the best time of my life. Coach Siegel is an amazing coach. I love playing for her and playing with my best friend (Janel). Its been amazing. I’m going to miss basketball and wearing Fort Loramie across my chest.”
The fourth quarter was a low scoring, frenetic, cat and mouse game as Loramie milked the clock en route to a 9-5 advantage to secure the victory. Ruhenkamp outscored Minster 6-5 with two baskets down low and two free throws.
Siegel said, “When you put so much work into something like we did all week-it’s a great feeling of satisfaction. We worked on our offensive sets over and over because we decided to run set plays instead of running our motion offense. And to go out and do it game time-great satisfaction.”
Freshman Darian Rose scored four points and will be expected to fill Olberding’s shoes next season.
Minster’s BIGS, Fullenkamp and Wolf (MAC POY), were held to nine and eight points, respectively.
Siegel said, “I can’t say enough about the way the girls played defense. We made some changes. We had to stop Fullenkamp and Wolf and we did a great job. A great total team effort.”
Those changes consisted of a man defense instead of zone and fronting the post players with back-side help lurking at all times. In the 42-38 loss to Minster in December, Fullenkamp and Delanie combined for 27 points.
And so, the Olberding and Ruhenkamp Farewell Tournament Tour continues. Fort Loramie (20-5) faces Tri-Village (24-1) for the second straight year in the regional final Saturday at 7:30 PM.
Loramie polished off the Patriots 42-26 in that contest.
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