Fort beats No. 4 Cavs

COLDWATER, Ohio - Three weeks ago the Fort Recovery High School boys basketball team lost to the host Cavaliers in the championship game of the Coldwater Classic. Certainly they'd like to win every game, but at they same time the Indians felt Friday night's rematch took precedence.

Fort Recovery avenged that defeat and knocked Division III No. 4 Coldwater from the ranks of the unbeaten, getting key defensive stops for a 56-51 victory in overtime.

"It was the (reverse) situation last year," said Fort Recovery coach Brian Patch, whose team beat the Cavaliers in last season's Coldwater Classic only to lose to them in their Midwest Athletic Conference game. "That was something we talked about. We would much rather have this one. If we had won that last one, it would have felt good, but not this good."

The Indians (9-1, 3-0 Midwest Athletic Conference), who were 13th in the Division IV voting in this week's poll by The Associated Press, trailed just once after the intermission when Keith Wenning hit a 3-pointer with 1:32 left in overtime. But the Tribe never allowed Coldwater to score again.

Jared Kahlig, shooting for the briefly-hurt Greg Kahlig, hit 1-of-2 free throws to tie the game with 1:32 left, and freshman Wade Gelhaus split a pair with 39 seconds to go to push Fort Recovery ahead. The Indians forced a turnover on the ensuing possession, and Greg Kahlig nailed two free throws to push the lead to three.

Coldwater had its chance to tie the game on another 3-point try by Wenning, but he was off the mark and Gelhaus out-jumped everyone to grab the rebound. Jason Pottkotter added a pair of free throws for the final margin.

"It was an awesome win, a great game," said Greg Kahlig, who led all scorers with 23 points. "Thankfully we came out on top."

After hitting for just seven points in the first half, Greg Kahlig scored 12 in the third quarter and his game-high total pushed him to second on Fort Recovery's all-time scoring list. His total of 1,364 points is one more than 1973 graduate Kevin Dilworth, and now he trails only 1969 graduate Ken Heiby (1,418).

The senior also had 12 rebounds and two blocks while playing impressive defense against Coldwater center Eric Lefeld.

"That's probably something that is overshadowed for him is his defense," said Patch. "He's just a kid who offensively is so talented, everybody looks at that. He defended Lefeld well."

Pottkotter (11 points), Craig Tobe (11) and Gelhaus (10) all joined Kahlig in double figures. Gelhaus grabbed seven rebounds, and Cody Fiely had four assists.

Fort Recovery trailed 15-11 at the close of the first quarter, but took a 30-27 lead into halftime thanks to a Gelhaus put-back at the buzzer. The Tribe led 48-42 with three minutes to play before Coldwater scored six straight to pull even and Greg Kahlig missed a pull-up jumper at the buzzer.

Wenning hit four 3-pointers and led the Cavaliers (8-1, 2-1 MAC) with 21 points. Lefeld totaled 14 points on 5-of-13 shooting and grabbed 14 rebounds.

"It was a great ball game," said Coldwater coach Mike Kanney. "We just didn't make the big baskets down the stretch that we needed to. I thought Fort Recovery had a couple of guys step up. I thought we did a good job of guarding Kahlig and trying to make somebody else beat us, and they stepped up and hit some shots."

Junior varsity

The Indians got outscored 13-3 in the third quarter, and Coldwater pulled away in the second half to beat them 44-23.

Shane Brunswick had team highs of 10 points and six rebounds for the Indians, who were out-rebounded 27-15 and shot just 30 percent. Ryan Link added five points.

Mark Brunet had 11 points on 5-of-5 shooting for the Cavaliers and grabbed five rebounds. Randal Muhlenkamp scored eight points.[[In-content Ad]]