Fort finale

KETTERING, Ohio - Congratulations boys, you have secured your place in history.

Although Friday night's regional final ended in defeat for Division IV No. 8 Fort Recovery, it will be a game no fan in attendance will ever forget. It will be talked about for years to come as one of the great contests in which the school has ever participated. And, in time, it will be one the players look back on with pride.

The Indians rallied back from a 16-point deficit against what is widely considered the best Division IV team in the state. They took the lead with 3:25 to go, and even forced overtime despite having FRHS all-time leading scorer Greg Kahlig foul out at the 2:05 mark. And they hung tough in overtime, staying right with No. 7 Jefferson Township until the closing seconds.

When the clock hit zeros, Fort Recovery was left with a 55-51 overtime loss to the Broncos. Their dream of a trip to the state finals did not come true, but another dream did.

"Cody (Fiely) especially had talked about it all year, about leaving his mark on Fort Recovery basketball," said FRHS coach Brian Patch. "That's what I told him he just did. We didn't get to state, but that team definitely will not be forgotten, that's for sure. They have a lot to be proud of."

Two minutes into the second half Friday, the Indians (21-4) looked as if they were headed for a blowout defeat.

They had turned the ball over 11 times in the first half, and trailed 32-16 after Jefferson scored the first four points of the third quarter.

But Kahlig split a pair of free throws after the Broncos' Joby Jackson was called for a technical foul at the 5:30 mark, and then buried his first 3-pointer of the game 43 seconds later. The long-distance shot got Kahlig going, and he drove to the basket at will over the course of the next eight minutes.

He scored half of his 16 third-quarter points from the line, getting the Tribe into the double bonus at the 1:56 mark of the third quarter. By the end of the period, Jefferson led by just five.

"We knew they were coming," said Broncos coach Art Winston of the rally. "They're a good team. ... You don't win 20 games and not be able to come back and face adversity. They did a good job.

"(Kahlig) was in attack mode. He wasn't settling for the jump shot - the same thing he did against Lockland basically. We did everything we could to try to get over and help ..."

But Jefferson (15-10), which managed to squeak its lead back out to 44-37, couldn't do much of anything to stop him. The senior assisted on back-to-back hoops by freshman Wade Gelhaus, who looked like anything but a freshman in scoring 12 points, and then pulled the Indians even on a drive with 3:15 remaining.

After an Irving Wood miss, Kahlig drove to the hole again to give Fort Recovery its first lead of the game.

However, he picked up his fourth foul guarding 6-foot-10-inch Michigan State recruit Adreian Payne at the 2:09 mark, and then was hit with his fifth just four seconds later.

"I did not realize that was his fifth foul," said Winston of the blocking call that came about 17 feet from the basket. "In a game of this magnitude, I think it's a shame to have a kid foul out of the game. ... But I'm not complaining."

Even without their leader, the Indian group of Michael Gaerke, Craig Tobe, Jason Pottkotter, Gelhaus and Fiely went toe-to-toe with the Broncos.

Gelhaus scored on a drive to give the Indians a 48-46 lead with 1:27 to go. And after Dwight Johnson reclaimed the lead for Jefferson with a 3-pointer, Fiely split a pair of free throws with 35 seconds left to tie the score.

With the ball in the Broncos' hands, Patch decided to have his Indians foul. The idea was, whether Jefferson made or missed its free throws, Fort Recovery would get the ball back and have one shot to win the game in regulation.

The Indians had that chance after Johnson missed the front end of a one-and one, but did not get as good of a look at the basket as they would have liked. The ball was knocked away as they brought it up the floor, and Gelhaus was forced to launch a 3-pointer from just inside half-court as time expired.

Jefferson scored the first three points of the extra session before Gelhaus drove past Payne again to pull the Tribe back to within one with 2:05 left. But they did not score again, and Johnson and Juan Gay combined to hit three more free throws fro the final margin.

"The best Division IV team in the state of Ohio right there, down 16, and they fought back and got it into overtime," said Patch. "When Greg went out they could have easily folded and the didn't. I think it shows ... we have a lot of heart and character. They left it all out there."

Kahlig racked up 27 points eight rebounds and six assists in the final game of his career.

Twenty-four of those points came during a span of just 12 minutes in which the Indians outscored Jefferson 30-12. And he assisted on the Tribe's other three hoops during the run.

He finished with 1,727 points, just 17 short of the Midwest Athletic Conference record set by 2004 Versailles graduate Kyle Gehle.

"Greg Kahlig is unbelieveable," said Patch, adding that his heart was ripped out when Kahlig had to leave the game after picking up his fifth foul. "There has never been a player that I've coached that is as good as him, maybe never will be (again). They could not guard him at all. There was no one who could stay in front of him. Once he hit that one shot in the third quarter and got going, he was on fire.

"I guess personally, in my mind, tonight proved who the Division IV Player of the Year was."

No one on the Broncos' squad reached double figures as Payne and Devin Foster shared the team scoring high with nine points apiece. Cody Latimer added eight points, and Johnson and Gay each added seven.

Payne grabbed six boards - the Indians out-rebounded Jefferson 31-23 - and Jackson had five rebounds, four assists and two blocks.

The Broncos advance to the state final four, where they will play in the semifinal round Friday at 2 p.m. Their last trip to the state finals came in 1998, when they captured the state title.

With his season over, Patch praised his team and its accomplishments, which included the school's third MAC title and fourth trip to the regional.

Noting that he has watched the seniors - Kahlig, Fiely, Tobe and Gaerke - since their sixth-grade year and his first season as the Tribe coach, he likened them more as family than as players. He said their attitude, effort and desire this season carried them to their success.

"A lot of people thought we'd struggle to be .500 this year," said Patch. "We're 21-4. That's the grittiest bunch of kids I've ever been around."

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