Yelle's career night creates a buzz

In one aspect, Geneva senior point guard Kat Yelle couldn't have picked a better opponent to play the best game in her four years with the Vikings.

Yelle poured in a career-high 38 points in a 69-58 loss to Pickerington North from Ohio in the 21st annual McDonald's Shootout Saturday night at Willowbrook.

Pickerington is located 55 minutes from where Yelle will play her college basketball at Ohio University. Panthers coach Dave Butcher can take a glowing scouting report back home of what Ohio is going to get the next four years.

“Great player,” Butcher said. “We exchanged films and watched them on film and knew she was good and we're real familiar with Ohio University. We didn't control her in transition well, didn't keep her from the hoop.”

Yelle continually got past the Panther defenders and drove through the lane, either converting or getting fouled. She made 13 field goals — her one 3-pointer came on a half-court buzzer beater to end the first quarter — and 11 of 15 free throws.

Butcher said he's sent five or six of his players to Ohio University through the years so he's quite familiar with the program coached by another outstanding point guard, former Tennessee great Semeka Randall.

“It's a beautiful campus and we have a lot of kids in our program over the years who have gone to the Mid-American Conference,” Butcher said. “This kid is special, she is really a nice player. We couldn't stop her, she took the ball to the glass and turned down the lane and we didn't do a good job helping.”

Yelle's huge game in a setting like Saturday should help put her name in line for more postseason honors. Geneva coach Gina Nolan said she believes Yelle has been overlooked in the discussion for the state's top players in part because she didn't sign with a bigger college.

Yelle committed to Ohio before her junior year and had bigger schools asking her to de-committ. The ball-handling whiz kept her word and signed with Ohio in November and is looking forward to playing for a coach in Randall who also was one of the college game's best point guards.

Despite Yelle's big night, the Vikings couldn't keep up with the Panthers and Austin Peay-bound Shelby Olsewski (24 points) and Villanova-bound Kavuanaa Edwards (23 points). Geneva (14-5) bounced back Tuesday night with a 63-45 Upstate Eight Conference crossover win at Lake Park.

“They (Pickerington) are very well coached, they move the ball well and have a knack of finding that open player and did a nice job of knocking down shots,” Nolan said. “It was a good challenge for us but definitely some mistakes we made that contributed.”