FR blasts St. John's

FORT RECOVERY — The Indians got their first taste of losing Saturday. They didn’t enjoy it.
The loss to Greenville sparked a new intensity in practice for Fort Recovery this week, and it showed on the court Thursday.
The Tribe pushed the tempo, surged to a nine-point lead at halftime and quickly turned the game into a blowout in the second half as it defeated the St. John’s Blue Jays 62-35.
“Practice was a little more intense this week because I know everyone was mad about losing,” said FRHS senior Kelsey Fiely. “We had a really bad practice on Friday last week and we played like we practiced.”
The game was a back-and-forth battle for most of the opening half, with St. John’s pulling to within 26-22 on a Rebekah Fischer 3-pointer with just over a minute left in the second quarter. But the Indians scored the final five points of the period to extend its lead and then blitzed the Blue Jays in the third quarter.
Tori Lennartz hit a lay-up and free throw for a three-point play with 5:30 to go to push Fort Recovery’s lead to 11 points and they stayed ahead by double figures the rest of the way. Coach Dan Grothouse called a timeout to try to refocus the Blue Jays, but the Indians caught fire anyway.
Lennartz assisted on hoops by Chelsea Pottkotter and Fiely, and then buried a 3-pointer on an assist from Sierra Pugh. Pott-kotter added a put-back basket after another timeout before St. John’s finally stopped the run.
“In the third a couple things didn’t happen well for us,” said Grothouse. “They picked it up physically and we weren’t ready to match that. It was like we just folded and didn’t fight back.
“If you go in the MAC on the road and you’re not ready to compete, you’re going to get it handed to you just like we did tonight.”
The Indians (5-1, 2-0 Midwest Athletic Conference) extended their lead to 22 points at the end of the quarter, and added a 7-0 run in the fourth.
Lennartz overcame the illness she had been battling all week to lead the Indians with 15 points and eight rebounds. Fiely was right behind her with 14 points.
Pugh joined them in double figures with 11 points, and also had seven rebounds and a game-high five assists. Chelsea Pottkotter added nine points.
“I thought we played really well considering we’ve had some kids sick this week,” said Bihn, whose team shot 56 percent after hitting for just 30 percent in Saturday’s 41-36 loss to Greenville. “Tori was really feeling bad yesterday. It was a good team win for us tonight.
“Sierra is playing really well for us right now,” he added of the junior point guard. “We know she’s athletic as all get out. I expect her to be a really nice player for us. I think she can be a big part of what we do.”
While Fort Recovery was much better offensively than in their previous game, it also made strides defensively in the second half. After the Blue Jays were able to get the ball into the paint frequently in the first half, the Tribe mostly shut down their inside game after the intermission.
St. John’s (3-3, 1-1 MAC) managed just five points in the third quarter and shot 19 percent in the second half.
“Our help side wasn’t there when we played man, so we switched to zone,” said Pugh.
“I thought they were getting too many easy baskets off penetration because we were getting slow on the back-side rotation,” added Bihn. “I thought if we went zone we could probably eliminate a lot of that stuff.”
Katie Vorst was the only Blue Jay in double figures as she finished with 11 points to go along with seven rebounds. Sydney Fischbach added seven points.

Junior varsity
Fort Recovery eked out a win over the Blue Jays in a defensive battle, 25-24.
Kendra Siefring, Kirsten Jutte and Haley Knapke each scored six points to lead the Indians, who shot just 30 percent but held St. John’s to 27 percent. Kelsey Evers added four points and five rebounds.
Ashlyn Troyer totaled seven points and 10 rebounds for the Blue Jays. Rachel Pohlman also scored seven points.

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