Fort holds off Rangers

NEW KNOXVILLE, Ohio — The last time the Indians visited The Barn, they needed a 30-point effort from Greg Kahlig on the night he broke the school scoring record to eke out a win.
On Friday, a basket and a block from Wade Gelhaus on back-to-back plays helped them fight off a frisky Rangers squad.
The Gelhaus plays around the three-minute mark ended a 7-0 New Knoxville run and pushed the Division IV No. 3 Fort Recovery High School boys basketball team to a 47-37 victory
“We haven’t been in a whole lot of games like this this year,” said FRHS coach Brian Patch, whose team has won 10 of its games by double digits.
“And so we had told them in the one time out, ‘This is something we haven’t had an opportunity to play a lot this year. We’ve got to see what our execution is defensively, offensively at the end. Are we going to hit free throws? Are we going to make the right play, the smart play?’ And we were able to step up and do a few of those things.”
Jake Allen capped the run for the Rangers (6-7, 1-3 Midwest Athletic Conference) with a three-point play to close the gap to 37-32 with less than four minutes remaining. But Patch called a timeout and his squad responded.
Gelhaus immediately drove the lane and scored, and then blocked a 3-point try by Lucas Leffel on the other end. Jason Pottkotter grabbed the rebound and pushed the ball up the floor, finding Elijah Kahlig under the hoop for another basket that gave the Indians a nine-point lead.
Leffel hit a couple of free throws to pull New Knoxville back to within 41-34, but the Indians scored the next six points in a row, including a fast-break dunk from Jared Kahlig following a block by Ben Dilworth.
“We got it down to five with three and a half to go and we had two straight possessions where we made big turnovers,” said NKHS coach Kort Fledderjohann. “We had chances to cut into that lead. …
“We’ve got some young kids down there and come crunch times they switched a couple of things and we made a couple of bad passes. The youth came through there.”
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Fort Recovery (12-1, 5-0 MAC) trailed for just over a minute in the entire game after Leffel hit back-to-back 3-pointers early in the second quarter. It reclaimed the lead on a Gelhaus steal and dunk at the 5:29 mark of the period and never trailed again.
The Indians finished the first half on a 12-2 run for a 22-15 lead, and then scored the first four points of the second half to put New Knoxville on its heels.
“We came out with the ball in the second half and we had a couple of sets we wanted to run right off the bat and we just didn’t execute,” said Fledderjohann. “And then they score a couple of baskets and built the lead up to 10, 12 points and we just struggled the rest of the game to cut into it.”
Gelhaus totaled 19 points to lead the Indians, and Jared Kahlig joined him in double figures with 10. Pottkotter, Gelhaus and Jared Kahlig each grabbed eight rebounds.
Patch said he was mostly happy with his team’s defense as it held New Knoxville to just 11-of-37 (30 percent) from the field, but he expected it to be stronger on the offensive end with the Rangers playing man-to-man.
“I was shocked, to be honest,” said Patch, “because we haven’t seen (man-to-man) the last few games. I didn’t think we would see it … but when those opportunities arise we’ve got tot take better care of the ball, we’ve got to make better decisions and we’ve got to be more efficient on offense.
“Most teams haven’t played us man recently. Our eyes should light up when we see that and we just didn’t take advantage of it.”
Leffel was the only Ranger in double figures as he hit three 3-pointers and went 6-of-7 at the foul line on the way to scoring 17 points. He also grabbed six rebounds.
Jake Allen added six points and three assists.

Junior varsity
The Indians couldn’t find their touch from the field in a 42-30 loss to New Knoxville.
Michael Joash had seven points to lead the Indians, who scored just one second-quarter point and shot 22 percent for the game. Mitch Stammen added five points and six rebounds.
Shane Topp was the only player in double figures, scoring 11 points to go along with six rebounds to lead the Rangers. Adam Howe followed with eight points.[[In-content Ad]]