Fort upsets No. 4 Tigers

FORT RECOVERY — The Indians’ opponents make a point of trying not to let Elijah Kahlig beat them.
This week, they haven’t been very successful.
For the second time in four days Friday, Kahlig buried a game-winning shot to lift Fort Recovery to a 39-37 victory Friday over the Division III No. 4 Versailles Tigers.
“Any time you can beat a ranked team, obviously your kids probably played well,” said FRHS coach Brian Patch. “I think more important than beating them is just putting ourselves in position to stay in front in the MAC is the big thing.”
The win leaves Fort Recovery (10-2, 4-0 Midwest Athletic Conference) and Marion Local (10-1, 3-0 MAC) as the lone undefeated teams in the league.
The Tribe was deadlocked with the Tigers (10-2, 4-1) at the end of the second and third quarters, and was in that position again as it called timeout with 12 seconds left in the game.
The Indians set up a play to get the ball to Kahlig with an option to find a back-door cutter if Versailles went a double team. But as Kahlig took the pass from point guard Ben Dilworth, he saw his opportunity.
The senior dribbled to his right to create room, stepped back and buried a 17-footer to give the Tribe a two-point lead.
The hoop gave Kahlig, who also hit a game-winning shot Tuesday against St. John’s, a game-high 20 points.
“He had a pretty good week,” said Patch of the senior, who also grabbed five rebounds. “Every game plan, every team we play, their whole goal is to shut him down or make him try to earn everything he has.  
“He stepped up and hit some big shots when we needed him to.”
Versailles had a chance after it turned the ball over and fouled Kahlig with 0.8 seconds left as the front end of his one-and-one opportunity missed off the rim. The Tigers grabbed the rebound, but their shot that traveled nearly the full length of the court and went in came just after time expired.
The game was close throughout, with neither team leading by more than six points, and defense dominated the second half.
The Indians locked down, limiting Versailles to just 5-of-21 (24 percent) after the intermission. The Tigers scored just four points — all by leading scorer Damien Richard — in the fourth quarter.
“Our defense was really good in the second half,” said Patch. “It was a gritty effort on our part. We led most of the game. The second and third quarters came up tied. We just basically kept getting stops when we needed to.”
Alex Kaiser followed Kahlig for the Indians with seven points while also coming up with team highs of six rebounds and four steals. Kyle Schroer had six points, and Dilworth added five boards, four points and four assists.
Patch was impressed with the way his team played against a Versailles squad that focused on slowing down the pace and trying to use its height advantage inside.
“Our kids executed (the game plan) perfectly,” he said. “We knew who we needed to get out on, we know who we could lay off. … We played together again and we played with some toughness. That’s kind of been our theme this year.”
Richard was the lone Tiger player in double figures with 14 points. He had a game-high seven rebounds and also came up with three steals.
Ryan Knapke and Nick Campbell each added six points, and Knapke also dished out four assists.

Junior varsity
Fort Recovery struggled after a strong opening quarter on the way to a 44-31 loss to the Tigers.
The Indians (6-6) built an eight-point lead in the opening quarter, but were down 21-16 by halftime. They shot 31 percent for the game as Versailles pulled away.
Micaiah Cox paced the Tribe with 12 points and seven rebounds. Caleb Martin added eight points and four boards.
Austin Knapke led a balanced scoring effort for Versailles with eight points. Justin Marshal grabbed nine­­­ rebounds.[[In-content Ad]]