Fort stops Rams

KALIDA, Ohio — It was a bit of a bumpy ride for the Indians, especially in the first half. But they were still able to break the Rams.
Fort Recovery never trailed three-time defending champion Tinora in their Division III district semifinal match-up Thursday, pulling away in the second half for a 48-33 victory.
While the offense was up-and-down for the Indians (20-2), a solid defensive effort powered them to the victory as they held Tinora to just 28 percent shooting.
“Their pressure, their intensity is very high the entire game,” said THS coach Rich Thiel.” They don’t back it off. …
“Our start was just not very good. I thought we weren’t ready. We worked against pressure all week in practice and we came out and we were a little bit soft. We had some turnovers that we don’t normally have. Credit that to their pressure, their intensity.”
Fort Recovery, which has 20 victories for the first time since winning back-to-back state titles in 1990 and ’91, shot just 4-of-13 from the field in the opening quarter, missing all five of its 3-point attempts. But the Tribe held the Rams scoreless for the first 5:57 of the game as it jumped out to a 6-0 lead and never trailed.
Then the Indians found their shooting tough, with Holly Brunswick, who scored a game-high 19 points, draining back-to-back triples in the second quarter to push to a 17-6 lead.
Brunswick buried three 3-pointers in the victory and shot 8-of-12 from the field. She also shared the team high of seven rebounds with Olivia Thien.
“Holly struggled early. I think she turned the ball over the first two teams down the floor,” said FRHS coach Doug Bihn. “We took her out and talked to her a little bit … Once she got back in, she played a great game for us. Holly was pretty spectacular on the offensive end. I really don’t think they had an answer for her.”
Tinora managed to claw back to within 19-15 on an Anna Steffel second-chance hoop with 29 seconds to go in the first half before the Brunswick sisters turned in one of the biggest plays of the game.
With the clock ticking away, the Indians looked out of sorts on offense and in danger of letting time run out without getting a shot off.
But the ball found its way to Holly Brunswick near the top of the key and she flipped it back to her sister Kendra, who launched a 3-point try just before the buzzer.
The shot fell through, extending Fort Recovery’s lead back to seven points.
“I was trying to get our girls to foul. We only had four team fouls,” said Thiel. “Our girls couldn’t hear me, and she catches it at the top … lets it fly and it goes in. We had worked to get ourselves back (to within four). … Minus that shot, we were in pretty good position.”
Seniors Kendra Brunswick and Nicole Dilworth scored the first four points of the second half, and the Rams never closed the gap to fewer than seven points the rest of the way.
Kendra Brunswick followed her sister with nine points, Nicole Dilworth had seven and Kelly Nietfeld added six. Olivia Schwieterman dished out five assists, including a pass over the top of the defense to Dilworth for a lay-up that extended the Indians advantage to 42-28 and put the game away.
“They have so many weapons. You can’t guard them all,” said Thiel. “It’s one of those pick your poison things. We tried to pick up the pressure just a little bit and they started coming off some cuts and hitting people in the lane and got to the line … That’s what good offensive teams do.”
Fort Recovery harassed Rams leading scorer Anna Steffel all night, constantly throwing different defenders at her. She scored 11 points in the first half, but was held scoreless after the intermission and finished with seven turnovers.
“At halftime we talked about Steffel,” said Bihn. “She’s a great player. And we just wanted to make sure we kept a fresh body on her the whole second half. We kept rotating defensive players on her. … We had a good defensive effort in the second half from the whole group.”
Senior Janya Sanders paced Tinora with 13 points, and Kendra McCann had 10 rebounds.
The only other losses this season for the Rams, who won the district title last season before falling to top-ranked Liberty-Benton in the regional semifinal round, came against Antwerp and Division IV No. 3 Wayne Trace.
The Indians, who have won 11 in a row, advance to play the Evergreen Vikings (20-2) in Saturday’s district championship game at 7 p.m. They are seeking their first trip to the regional tournament since 2001.
Evergreen cruised through its district semifinal game, defeating Lima Central Catholic 60-25 behind 23 points from junior guard Lauren Langenderfer.
“Evergreen is a good team,” said Bihn. “They also have a nice guard in (Langenderfer). They’ve got some size also. Evergreen is real comparable to (Tinora). They’re probably not quite as deep …
“If we come out and play, we can compete with anybody.”[[In-content Ad]]