Fort Recovery falls

COLUMBUS, Ohio — As she was leading the Indians off the floor, senior Abby Huelskamp turned around and gathered her teammates. Although their season ended in defeat Friday afternoon, they deserved one more moment on the basketball court.
So they formed a circle, putting their arms around each other’s backs. And although many of their eyes were filled with tears, they cheered together.
“We worked really hard to get here, and just the fact that we did get here means so much,” said senior captain Nicole Dilworth after her team dropped its Division III state semifinal game 57-40 to the third-ranked Anna Rockets on Friday at The Ohio State University’s Jerome Schottenstein Center. “We’ve been through a lot, and it shows how good of a team we are — coming together to do this. It’s a dream coming true.”
Unfortunately for Fort Recovery, the dream of a state championship won’t come to fruition this year because of a variety of factors, including foul trouble, long-distance shooting struggles and rebounding.
The biggest of those was the foul situation, which saw four Indians pick up two each in the opening half. One of those was scoring leader Holly Brunswick, who got her fourth foul late in the third quarter and exited the game with her fifth on a delayed charging call with about five minutes to go.
It was the first time she has fouled out all season.
“I didn’t think some of them were there, but I don’t know,” said Brunswick, who played just 15 minutes. “Once I got the first two in the first half I was pretty frustrated after that, because if you get two in the first half you’re done. I sat basically the whole second quarter …
“I didn’t realize I had four even in the second half. When I came out, I couldn’t believe it. And then that fifth one, just about killed me.”
“When you take probably our best player out of our lineup, it hampers us,” added FRHS coach Doug Bihn. “And we weren’t able to do a lot of things we wanted to do offensively and defensively because of that.”
The Indians had an 18-12 lead in the second quarter after six straight points from junior Kylie Kahlig. But when Kendra Brunswick and Olivia Thien, both seniors, picked up their second fouls in a span of 21 seconds, and with Holly Brunswick and Olivia Schwieterman already forced to the bench, the Rockets came soaring back.
Anna (26-1) put together a 9-0 run capped by a 3-pointer and pair of free throws by Carrie Watson, who scored a game-high 16 points.
Fort Recovery got the lead back, but only briefly, and Erica Huber’s 3-pointer with two seconds left in the opening half swung momentum deeper into the Rockets’ favor.
“Erica Huber, a sophomore, hit a big three going into the half to give us a four-point lead,” said Anna coach Jack Billing, whose team will take on No. 1 Oak Hill in today’s state championship game. “And we come out and I think we kept the lead the rest of the game.”
The Indians (23-3) showed some good signs early in the third quarter, especially when Huelskamp drained a 3-pointer from the left corner to close the gap to three. But as the second half wore on, the foul issues and Anna’s size took their toll.
Watkins hit a 3-pointer and made a smart inbound play to give her team some breathing room, and the Rockets pushed ahead to 46-33 in their 20-point third quarter. Fort Recovery was unable to get within single digits the rest of the way.
Anna outscored the Indians 20-6 at the free-throw line for the game, and out-rebounded them 24-13 in the second half. The Tribe also struggled from long distance, shooting just 2-of-16 (13 percent) Friday after hitting for 45 percent in last week’s regional-championship win over No. 6 Africentric Early College.
“We didn’t get a whole lot of good looks,” said Bihn. “We forced some stuff. We took some shots we probably shouldn’t have taken. … Anna pressured us and forced us to run our offense probably a little faster than we’re used to running it. They’re a pretty quick team. Their team speed created some problems for us.”
Megan Fogt finished with 14 points to follow Watkins for the Rockets, and also grabbed 13 rebounds. Watkins grabbed 10 boards and Fogt added five blocked shots, teaming with junior Ashley Frohne (three blocks) to make things difficult on the Indians in the paint.
Kahlig tallied 13 points off the bench to pace Fort Recovery, and Holly Brunswick had eight despite her foul issues. Kendra Brunswick scored seven points, and Dilworth had seven rebounds.
Even with the defeat, Bihn could do nothing but compliment his team on one of the best seasons in school history.
The Indians’ 23 wins rank third in school history, trailing only the back-to-back state championship teams of 1990 and ’91. And they beat four 20-win teams, including No. 2 Lake, in four consecutive games just to make it to the state finals.
“We’ve had a great year, had a great run,” said Bihn, whose team had won 14 in a row. “I can’t thank my senior class enough for … getting us to this point in the season. We’re pretty disappointed, but at the same time there’s 196 teams that didn’t get a chance to come here today, and we’re one of four that did. … They have a lot to be proud of. We’ve accomplished a ton this season.”
“We’ve wanted it for so long,” added Holly Brunswick. “This whole week just seemed surreal. … To actually be here still feels pretty good. It’s too bad we came up short.”[[In-content Ad]]