Fort fails in fourth (12/03/05)

KALIDA, Ohio — A three-point lead heading into the final eight minutes wasn’t nearly enough for the Fort Recovery Indians in their season opener Friday night.

The Indians, who led at each of the first three quarter stops, were outscored by 12 in the final period as the host Kalida Wildcats pulled away for a 62-53 victory.

Fort Recovery (0-1), which plays tonight at Mississinewa Valley, used double-figure scoring from Clint Tobe (14 points) and Toby Metzger (11) to control three quarters against the Wildcats, but couldn’t hold onto a three-point lead they took into the final period.

The host team got a game-high 22 points from Casey Roller, and 16 from Andy Unverferth in victory.

Kalida, which was held to 36 percent shooting from the floor in the first half (8-for-22), improved to 53 percent (16-for-30) in the second, and shot 46 percent overall.

The Indians were 19-for-43 from the field in the game for 44 percent, including 8-for-21 from 3-point range.

Fort Recovery, which got nine points from Travis VanSkyock and eight from Luke Bihn, won the battle of the boards 30-21, with Tony Diller and VanSkyock each pulling down a team-high seven.

Unverferth paced Kalida with 10 boards.

Fort Recovery led 16-12 after one quarter and 23-22 at halftime before building a 37-34 margin heading into the fourth quarter.

Kalida also won Friday night’s junior varsity game by a 41-22 margin.

Lucas Staugler scored a game-high nine points and pulled down 15 rebounds for Fort.[[In-content Ad]]