Defense shines in Indians' blowout

FORT RECOVERY — The Indians’ pressure defense was so effective in the third quarter that it almost seemed like they were running a drill.
Deflection, steal, pass, lay-up — over and over again.
With Darien Sheffer and Brandon Schoen playing key roles, the Tribe tortured Waynesfield-Goshen into 13 turnovers in the third quarter as it scored most of its 29 points in the period in transition.
The dominant effort after halftime turned the game into a blowout as Fort Recovery led the Tigers by as many as 47 on the way to an 87-48 victory.
“That’s why they started,” said FRHS coach Brian Patch of Sheffer and Schoen, who opened the game on the bench but got the call to lead off the third quarter. “We felt like we needed a little bit of a spark plug and a little bit of an energy boost. And those guys came out and provided that.”
The Tribe (4-1) wasted no time pouncing on the Tigers after the intermission as steals led to three straight hoops by Alex Kaiser on assists from Schoen, Sheffer and Ben Dilworth sparked an 11-0 run in the first 2:37 of the third quarter. Waynesfield-Goshen broke the streak with a Lake Turner free throw after a timeout, but couldn’t slow down the Indians.
Fort Recovery pushed its lead to 66-29 as the Tigers’ only field goal in the first six minutes of the second half came on a Matt Spillman 3-pointer.
“That’s ideally how we want to play,” said Patch of the up-tempo style. “Obviously with Pig (Elijah Kahlig) being our biggest kid, we want to get up and down and make it a high possession game.”
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Kahlig, the team’s leading scorer, racked up 29 points while shooting 11-of-18 from the field and hitting all of his five free-throw attempts. And, he got plenty of help.
After struggling from the foul line in the first half, Kaiser scored 11 second-half points to finish with 16. He shot 7-of-11 from the field.
“His is a confidence thing,” Patch said. “In the first half he missed some shots he normally hits. He missed some free throws. …
“We told him at halftime, ‘Just relax and play. … Play like you do in practice.’ … He had a great second half when he did that. He just came out and made plays.”
Sheffer tallied seven of his 12 points during the third-quarter explosion. Schoen added nine points, and Dilworth notched all of his seven in the first half.
It was the second straight game in which the Indians’ posted 87 points, matching their total from their Dec. 7 victory at Ansonia.
The biggest difficulty of the night for the Tribe was its free-throw shooting as it missed 12 foul shots in the first half and finished just 15-of-32 for 47 percent.
“We were hoping they’d stop fouling us,” joked Patch, whose team went to the line 20 times in the first half. “Going into halftime we talked about being up double digits. I think it was 15. It could have been 25 or so … if we had stepped up and … hit free throws.
“That hadn’t been an issue, but obviously tonight it bit us a little bit. It’s something we have to work on.”
The Tigers scored the first points of the game and had an 8-7 lead in the opening period, but Fort Recovery closed the quarter on a 14-2 run and never trailed again.
Jerron Hennon was the lone Waynesfield-Goshen player in double figures as he finished with 17 points. Lake Turner and Wes Beard each added seven.

Junior varsity
Fort Recovery limited the Tigers to six or fewer points in every quarter, including none in the fourth, on the way to a 55-14 victory.
The Indians built a 14-point first-quarter lead and extended the advantage to 35-10 at halftime. They shut out Waynesfield-Goshen 12-0 in the fourth quarter.
Micaiah Cox, Chase Bruns and Caleb Martin led the blowout victory with 12 points apiece. Cox grabbed 12 rebounds for a double-double, and Tanner Koch and Martin each had three assists.
Joel Waitman’s seven points paced the Tigers.

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