Gelhaus powers FR

FORT RECOVERY — With the tournament just around the corner, the Indians are back on track.
After a seven-game losing streak, Fort Recovery broke through Friday by winning at St. John’s for just the second time in school history. It followed that effort up Saturday, picking up consecutive wins for the first time since early January with a 57-33 triumph over the Mississinawa Valley Blackhawks.
“Those losses, a lot of those games were close,” said FRHS coach Brian Patch, whose team lost by single digits five times during the skid. “The plays that we were making at the beginning of the year to win games, we just weren’t making those plays … We’ve just got to get back to doing those things, and this weekend we did those things.
“This is definitely the time when you want to be playing better, so hopefully this was a good start for us this weekend.”
Many of the big plays Saturday came from Wade Gelhaus.
The sophomore, who moved to Fort Recovery from the Mississinawa Valley Schools district prior to last year, lit up the Blackhawks. He already had six points before he threw down an alley-oop dunk off an assist from senior Ryan Schoen to open the second quarter, and had 14 by the intermission.
Gelhaus hit a pair of second-half 3-pointers on the way to his game-high total of 26 points, and finished with a double-double as he grabbed 12 rebounds.
“He doesn’t say a whole lot, but I’m sure it was a big game for him,” said Patch. “For us, this is the Wade that we’ve seen all summer long, the Wade that we’ve seen in the preseason, the Wade we’ve seen in practice — playing with confidence, shooting the ball with confidence … Hopefully for him this is a good jump-start going into tournament time for us.“It’s just nice to see him attacking the basket and playing with confidence.”
The Indians (11-8) got off to a slow start Saturday followed Friday’s two-point win at St. John’s. They gave up the first eight points of the game, forcing Patch to take a timeout less than three minutes into the game.
But they pulled to within one by the end of the opening period, took their first lead on the Gelhaus dunk and stepped in front for good on a Ben Dilworth hoop that started a 9-0 run midway through the second period.
Fort Recovery was up by nine at the half, and then held the Blackhawks scoreless for the first five minutes of the third quarter as it put together another 9-0 stretch. Mississinawa Valley never closed to within single digits in the second half.
“We just talked about playing with better effort and intensity,” said Patch of the early timeout. “We went through the motions a little bit (early). That’s not how we’re going to play … They came out and our defensive intensity picked up.”
Jared Kahlig joined Gelhaus in double figures for the Indians with 10 points. He also grabbed nine rebounds, and Elijah Kahlig added eight boards as part of the Tribe’s 45-27 advantage on the glass.
Gary Peace had 10 points to lead Mississinawa Valley, which struggled to a 4-of-26 (15 percent) mark from 3-point range and shot just 11-of-48 (23 percent) from the field overall. Nick McEwen followed with nine points.
Despite the wide margin, Fort Recovery’s fans had some exciting moments late when Patch was able to clear his bench and get seniors Shane Brunswick, Elliot Post and Aaron Wilker on the floor.
Post grabbed two rebounds and scored three points, Wilker came up with a board as soon as he hit the floor and then Brunswick (six points, five rebounds) brought the crowd to its feet in the final minute when he buried a 3-pointer and a driving lay-up on consecutive possessions.
“The three seniors that didn’t get to play a lot all year long — Aaron and Elliot and Shane — they’ve been great teammates and great supporters of the kids that are playing,” said Patch. “Those three have never said  a word or griped about playing time. They’re happy to be on the team. They’re happy to do whatever they can to make the team better.
“Tonight they got rewarded. It was great to see that the other kids on the bench were cheering for them …”

Junior varsity
Three players in double figures led the Indians to a 57-41 victory over Mississinawa Valley.
Mason Evers missed just one shot from the field as he led Fort Recovery, which was up by 14 at the half, with 16 points. Wyatt Blockberger and Trent Kaiser added 10 points apiece.
Dane Blumenstock totaled 11 points to lead the Blackhawks. Brandon Byers followed with nine points.[[In-content Ad]]