The Ovid-Elsie Lady Marauders welcomed the Ithaca Yellowjackets to town Tuesday night for a non-conference tilt which featured Ovid-Elsie at 5-2 and Ithaca at 7-0.  Ithaca's senior standout, Delaney Seaman, has been averaging 33 points per game, according to MaxPreps, so the Lady Marauders knew they were in for a battle.

"We still wanted to play our style of basketball," said Head Coach Ryan Cunningham.  "We felt that if we could keep her (Seaman) in check, we'd have a great chance to win this game."

Kiah Longoria and Izzy Loynes drew the tough defensive assignment and answered the bell holding the Yellowjacket sharp shooter to just 7 points on the night.

"Once again our kids played great defensively, especially Kiah and Izzy.  I also need to give a lot of credit our my assistant coaches who did a lot of work to get us ready for this game," added Cunningham.

Ithaca got off to a strong start and led after the first quarter 11-7, but Ovid-Elsie used a 19-9 run in the second quarter to head into the locker room up 26-20.  After a 15-11 third quarter, Ithaca started to play the "foul game" but Ovid-Elsie would hit their free throws down the stretch and capture the fourth quarter 14-13 as well.

"Braeden Tokar was huge at the line tonight," noted Cunningham.  "They started using their fouls with about 4 minutes to go and when she got to the line she delivered."

Tokar finished 8 for 8 from the foul line and 10 points on the night while adding 6 rebounds.  Evalyn Cole paced the Lady Marauders with 12 points, 4 assists and 4 steals while Ava Bates added 11 points and 8 boards.  Hailee Campbell added 9 points and Kiah Longoria finished with 9 points, 5 rebounds and 3 assists.  Loynes and Ellyanna Carman each chipped in with a bucket to round out the scoring.

Ovid-Elsie and Ithaca were deadlocked in rebounding with 28 caroms each but Ovid-Elsie was able to turn Ithaca over 17 times and collect 9 steals.  The Lady Marauders handed out 13 assists on 18 made baskets and shot nearly 40% for the game.  Ovid-Elsie also held a slight free throw advantage hitting on 14 of 19 attempts while Ithaca connected on 10 of 16 free throws.

Conference play will resume on Friday as Ovid-Elsie will host Mt. Morris.  The ladies will tip off at 5:30 p.m. and the boys will tip off at 7:00 p.m.