Guggenbiller, FR get first victory

FORT RECOVERY — The Indians came up with two offensive rebounds on their first possession before Darien Sheffer came up with a tip-in.
On the second, Brandon “Speedy” Schoen found Micaiah Cox wide open on a fast break.
Shawnee called a timeout just 43 seconds into the game, but the tone was set.
Fort Recovery High School’s boys basketball team dominated the glass and scored repeatedly in transition Saturday as it picked up its first win of the season 70-60 over the visiting Indians.
“We knew coming in Shawnee was going to be a transition team,” said FRHS coach Chris Guggenbiller. “A lot of the time teams that want to get out and go offensively don’t always like getting back defensively. We kind of wanted to see if we could pick on that a little bit.”
That strategy paid off, resulting in the first varsity win for Guggenbiller. The 1999 FRHS graduate who had been a coach in the Vandalia Butler system took over the program this season after 11 years under Brian Patch, who is now leading the girls team.
“It felt awesome. I love that guy,” said Sheffer of Guggenbiller. “He comes in here, smiles, we have fun, we get our work done. We just like to have fun.”
Cox followed the Shawnee timeout with four more points, the first hoop following a turnover and the second on an outlet pass from Schoen as Fort Recovery (1-3) built an 8-0 lead it would never relinquish. Sheffer and Cox, who scored a career-high 26 points, went on to combine for 15 of the 17 first-period points for the home team.
“They came out and took it to us. They set the tempo early,” said Shawnee coach Mark Triplett, whose team dropped to 2-2. “They did a great job of getting out in transition. And they were able to send their guys running on the shot because their bigs were doing such a great job of rebounding … We just didn’t match their intensity early on.”
In the third quarter it was Kyle Schroer’s turn to scorch Shawnee in transition as he scored eight of Fort Recovery’s first 10 second-half points. A Tribe block led to two of them, and then back-to-back steals resulted in assists from Chase Bruns and Schoen.
“He’s just a hustle man,” said Sheffer of Schroer. “He’ll do anything. He’ll get loose balls. He’ll score for you. He’ll play defense.”
After FRHS pushed its lead to 61-42 midway through the final period, Shawnee rallied. But the visitors were never able to close the gap to fewer than seven points.
Cox led the way as the homestanding Indians emerged from their scoring woes — they had shot 32 percent from the field in the first three games — as he went 12-of-16 en route to his career-high total. Schroer added 18 points and Sheffer had 15 for Fort Recovery, which shot 48 percent as a team, and Schoen dished out eight assists.
But it was the rebounds that were key, as Sheffer’s 11 led the team to a 46-20 advantage on the glass. Cox added seven boards, Chase Bruns and Caleb Martin each had six and Wes Wenning and Schroer grabbed five apiece.
Jaden O’Neal scored 25 points to pace Shawnee, and JaQuan Tucker followed with 14. But they combined to hit just 14-of-41 from the field as their team finished at 36 percent.

Junior varsity
A nine-point halftime lead disappeared and Fort Recovery got doubled up in overtime in a 53-49 loss to the visiting Indians.
The host Tribe scored 17 second-quarter points to build its advantage, but couldn’t even its record. Shawnee pulled even to force overtime and then posted an 8-4 advantage in the extra session.
Cade Wendel and Jason Roessner each scored 13 points for Fort Recovery in the loss. Tanner Koch grabbed nine rebounds.
Brady Sweeny led Shawnee to the comeback victory with 17 points.