{"id":167749,"date":"2026-02-17T05:14:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-17T05:14:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/167749\/"},"modified":"2026-02-17T05:14:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-17T05:14:09","slug":"ottawa-bushes-off-slow-start-advances-past-plano-shaw-local","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/167749\/","title":{"rendered":"Ottawa bushes off slow start, advances past Plano \u2013 Shaw Local"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Ottawa<\/a> girls basketball team struggled out the gate in Monday\u2019s Class 3A La Salle-Peru Regional semifinal against Plano<\/a> at A.J. Sellett Gymnasium.<\/p>\n

The No. 3-seeded Pirates missed all but one of their first 17 shots and trailed the No. 6-seeded Reapers by seven points midway into the second quarter.<\/p>\n

But then Ottawa used a 16-0 run over the next 8 minutes, 16 seconds of game time and closed out the third quarter on a 7-0 burst to eventually advance with a 43-21 victory.<\/p>\n

Ottawa (19-9) will play No. 2 Sterling, a 64-40 winner over the host Cavaliers in the night\u2019s opening semifinal, at 6 p.m. on Thursday in the championship game.<\/p>\n

Plano ends the season at 18-14.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you reach the postseason, you always expect there might be some jitters, and the things might look a little ragged and shots might not fall like you\u2019re used to them,\u201d Ottawa coach Brent Moore said. \u201cLike we told the girls, keep sticking together like you have all season. They did that.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe talked at halftime about how, if we keep playing good defense we\u2019re going to create offensive chances out of it. We really picked things up on the defensive end midway into the second quarter and were able to convert some turnovers into transition. We then put together a nice run at the end of the third to make it a four-possession game.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Niya<\/p>\n

Niya Viser of Plano dribbles through the Ottawa defense in Sellett Gym on February 16, 2026, at La Salle-Peru High School. (Kyle Russell)<\/p>\n

Plano freshman Niya Viser scored all five of her team\u2019s points in the opening quarter for a 5-2 lead.<\/p>\n

A free-throw line jumper by senior Jadyn Long, a drive by Viser and a rebound hoop from Chloe Rowe pushed the Reapers\u2019 lead to 11-4 at the four-minute mark of the second.<\/p>\n

Ottawa senior Mary Stisser netted seven points, and freshman Kennedy Kane six to close out the half to give the Pirates a 17-11 halftime lead.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe notoriously don\u2019t shoot well in this gym. I don\u2019t know why, but we just struggle to make shots here,\u201d Stisser said. \u201cBut Coach Moore always talks about how on nights when shots aren\u2019t falling, you just have to work that much harder on the defensive end.<\/p>\n

\u201cI felt like in the third quarter our defense was really good. We were able to turn a couple turnovers into layups, and then Libby knocked down a couple of 3s. We had the momentum from there.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Kennedy<\/p>\n

Kennedy Kane of Ottawa High School takes a shot during the IHSA Class 3A Girls Basketball Regionals in Sellett Gym on February 16, 2026 at LaSalle-Peru High School. (Kyle Russell)<\/p>\n

Plano closed to within five after a layup by Rowe and three-point play by Jailyn Brown, but the Pirates closed out the frame on drives by Kane and Ashlynn Ganiere and a triple by Libby Muffler to extend the advantage to 30-20.<\/p>\n

Muffler – who scored a game-high 16 points and grabbed seven rebounds – missed her first five 3s, but finished hitting three of her last four.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s tough when your first couple of shots don\u2019t go in, but I don\u2019t want to not shoot and pass up open shots,\u201d Muffler said. \u201cI just want to make sure I\u2019m taking good shots in rhythm. It was nice in the third quarter to finally see one go in; it was a big confidence boost for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

From there, Ottawa outscored Plano 13-0 over the final eight minutes.<\/p>\n

Ottawa hit 15 of 46 [33%] from the field, while Plano sank just 8 of 48 [17%].<\/p>\n

Kane ended with 10 points and five rebounds, Stisser nine points, five rebounds and three steals, Hailey Thrush four points and four rebounds, and Ganiere three points, 10 rebounds and five assists. <\/p>\n

Viser led Plano with 10 points and four rebounds. Brown had five points and six rebounds, and Rowe tallied four points and a game-best 17 rebounds.<\/p>\n

\u201cOttawa has a solid program, and they do what they do really well under Coach Moore,\u201d Plano coach Tristan Spivey said. \u201cWe can be a loose cannon \u2013 if our shots are going in, we look really good, but if there not like they weren\u2019t tonight, we look very inconsistent.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a young team, and I thought we started the game pretty well, but we had a long stretch where we didn\u2019t score. That allowed Ottawa to build a lead, and we just weren\u2019t able to find the shooting range to get back in it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Ottawa's<\/p>\n

Ottawa’s Lila Platt tries to dribble closer to the basket against Plano. (Kyle Russell)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Ottawa girls basketball team struggled out the gate in Monday\u2019s Class 3A La Salle-Peru Regional semifinal against…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":167750,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[36760,160,162,161],"class_list":["post-167749","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-plano","tag-illinois-high-school-girls-basketball","tag-plano","tag-plano-headlines","tag-plano-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167749","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=167749"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167749\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/167750"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=167749"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=167749"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=167749"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}