FR tops Jay

Coming off of a 60-point victory Thursday over Parkway, the Fort Recovery High School girls basketball team blitzed visiting Jay County 13-0 in the first five minutes. The Tribe’s high-intensity style led to a 30-8 halftime lead on the way to a 59-19 victory.
“Our kids came out on fire, shot the ball extremely well,” said FRHS coach Doug Bihn, whose team improved to 5-1. “I can’t say enough about their effort. They played their tails off.
“This is a good team we played tonight. Jay County’s not a bad team, they’re a good team. Our kids just came out and they were focused and ready to play.
“It’s a nice win for us.”
While the Patriots’ previous game was a win, coach Chris Krieg said he felt his team lacked a certain passion in topping Blackford 32-28 Tuesday. He added that he felt his team was a bit psyched out after watching the level of physicality in the junior varsity contest.
“Unfortunately, our girls were scared before the game started,” said Krieg. “Right now, we’re about 100 percent mental. We have the skills, we have the ability, we have the knowledge … We’re making some of the mistakes we made earlier, but we’re making them more often. …
“What’s frustrating is … we practice really hard. … And then all of a sudden the last two games … our intensity is not there …”
Fort Recovery, led by Kendra Brunswick, ferociously attacked the Patriots (7-4) in the opening minutes Saturday.
Brunswick opened the game with a 3-pointer off an Olivia Thien assist, and then assisted on a hoop by Thien. She added an old-fashioned three-point play, and then scored again to push the Indians’ lead to 10-0.
FRHS was up 13-0 before Erin Hunt finally scored for Jay County on a 3-pointer with 2:53 on the clock, and led 18-3 after the opening period. It kept the pressure on in the second quarter, extending the lead to 30-8 at halftime.
The Indians held Jay County was held to its lowest scoring output in more than a decade, and suffered its worst defeat since a 74-23 loss to Connersville in 2004.  Fort Recovery became just the third team this season to score more than 40 points against the Patriots, who entered the game allowing just 34 per game.
“We watched them play last week at Blackford … and we thought that they were going to try to control tempo, try to slow it down a little bit. That’s just not the style we need to play,” said Bihn, whose team forced 26 turnovers. “So we had to up the tempo as much as possible and we were able to do that early in the game.
“We try to get up in their faces and make them make decisions quicker than they’re usually used to making. That’s our philosophy here. When you get kids to make decisions quicker than they’re used to, especially when fatigue sets in, its usually in our favor.”
Kendra Brunswick scored eight of her 11 points in the opening four minutes, and Holly Brunswick had eight of her 10 in the first half. The senior sisters combined to go 4-of-7 from 3-point range.
Holly led the Tribe with five rebounds, and Kendra had four rebounds and four assists.
Kelly Nietfeld made an impact starting in place of Olivia Schwieterman, whose minutes were limited after she got banged up in Thursday’s win. She shot 50 percent from the field, hit her only 3-point try and scored a game-high 14 points.
The Indians, who also had a 16-0 run in the second half, finished 18-of-34 (53 percent) from the field and also outscored JCHS 17-4 at the foul line.
“We’re playing pretty well right now, shooting the ball extremely well,” said Bihn. “We’ve just got to keep that up. The great thing about it is we’ve got a bunch of kids doing it. It’s not just one or two kids doing it. It’s the whole squad.
“Kelly Nietfeld played a great ballgame for us. We put her in the starting lineup tonight and Kelly responded to the call.”
The Patriots have been most successful this season when they have been able to work inside-out, establishing the post early with Mariah Hornaday (13.2 points per game) and Maria Murphy (7.6 ppg). But they struggled to get the ball inside against Fort Recovery, and also shot just 1-of-14 from 3-point range.
“People are scouting us,” said Krieg, whose team shot just 18 percent. “I told the girls, ‘If I’m scouting you, I’m going to take the post away. I’m going to make you beat me from the outside.’ Fort Recovery did a great job defensively. They took the post away, and they took the outside away.”
Cara Garringer, Katlin Petro and Murphy each scored four points for the Patriots. Garringer and Hornaday each grabbed six rebounds.

Junior varsity
Fort Recovery turned in a shut out second quarter, held off a Patriot rally and stayed undefeated with a 35-26 victory.
The Indians outscored Jay County 9-0 in the second quarter and held the visiting team scoreless for about nine minutes. The Patriots rallied back with 11 points in the final three minutes of the third quarter and closed to within four, but couldn’t keep the momentum rolling in the fourth.
Chelsea Pottkotter scored 10 points to lead the Tribe, which is now 6-0. Janelle Schwieterman added nine points, eight steals and seven rebounds.
Jay County (9-2) got a team-leading nine points from LeAnn Horn. Emily Devoe added seven points and four rebounds.

Freshman
The Indians started their sweep with a 19-16 victory over Jay County.
Jackie Fullenkamp scored eight points for the Indians, who earned their second win of the season. Kelsee Ontrop added six points.