Fort rolls over W-G

COLDWATER, Ohio — The Indians’ first victory over Waynesfield-Goshen this season gave coach Brian Patch his 100th win. Their second earned them a chance to play for their fourth straight sectional title.
After a shaky start, Fort Recovery took control and pulled away from the Tigers for a 68-36 victory Wednesday in the opening round of the Division IV sectional tournament.
The Tribe advances to play top-seeded New Knoxville (17-3) in Friday’s sectional championship game at 6:15 p.m.
“It was just one of those games where you’ve got to come out and take care of business,” said Patch. “At this point, everyone has the same record. You can’t worry about us playing them the first time around … and what happened in that game. You’ve just got to come out and be focused and come out ready to play.
“I didn’t think we started out that way. Defensively, I thought we were pretty bad. … I thought our second half was a lot better.”
Fort Recovery beat Waynesfield-Goshen by 14 in December, but trailed 12-11 with 2:39 to go in the first quarter Wednesday before getting on track. It scored the final eight points of the opening quarter, and then got a 3-pointer from Elijah Kahlig and a coast-to-coast lay-up from Wade Gelhaus to end a 13-0 run.
The Indians were up by 10 at the half, used a 9-0 run to extend their lead to 44-24 in the third and scored 14 straight points in the fourth.
Wade Gelhaus scored all of his game-high 21 points in the final three quarters, and Elijah Kahlig hit three 3-pointers to follow the sophomore with 18. All of Jared Kahlig’s 13 points game in the first half, including 10 in the opening quarter, and he also led the Tribe with eight rebounds.
“That’s the highest point total we’ve put up in a long time,” said Patch, whose team posted a season-high 69 points Dec. 11 against Tri-Village. “We had three guys in doubles. … We started off a little slow and Jared was there to keep us going, keep us attacking. He hit some big shots early on … and got some big boards.”
Hickman has eight of Waynesfield-Goshen’s first 12 points and finished 7-of-8 from the field with 14 points. He also grabbed a team-high five rebounds.
The regular-season meeting between Fort Recovery (13-8) and New Knoxville was part of the Tribe’s seven-game losing streak. The Indians gave up a 9-0 run and never got any closer than nine points in the final three quarters.
“They took it to us at our place early in the year and controlled that game,” said Patch. “By far they’re going to be favored.
“They have the MAC Player of the Year in Markus Reineke, and he is a very, very good player. …
“I told our guys in (the locker room), we’re going to have to be a lot better for us to even have a chance to compete with them.
“We’ve got to do a better job defensively against them. The Horstman kid went off and had 18 against us last time. We’ve got to handle the ball  and handle the pressure.
“We can’t have a bad quarter. Last time one bad quarter made the difference in the game.”
The teams played two tremendous games last season, with Greg Kahlig breaking the FRHS all-time scoring record in a 60-56 victory during the regular season. The Indians trailed by 14 with less than six minutes to go in the sectional rematch before rallying for a 60-56 overtime victory that sparked a run to the regional final.[[In-content Ad]]