Indians thump Riverside (01/07/08)

FORT RECOVERY - The Indians finished with a 17-point win. But the margin could have been much wider than that, had they chosen to make it so.

The Fort Recovery High School girls basketball team was up by 27 midway through the third quarter before clearing the bench in their 55-38 win over the Riverside Pirates.

"We had a great opportunity to play a lot of kids who don't normally get to play," said FRHS coach Doug Bihn, who played all 13 players available to him for at least four minutes. "We tried some different things out and rested some kids who have been a little banged up."

The Indians (7-4) dominated the opening 20 minutes, which included a 14-0 run capped by Joanna Snyder's hoop to start the second quarter. They were up 18-2 at that point and stayed in control as Riverside (5-7) went nearly 11 minutes without a field goal.

Amelia Carter was the only Pirate to score in the first 12 minutes of the game.

Fort Recovery led 26-9 at halftime, then added an 8-0 third-quarter run for the 39-12 advantage.

Defense keyed the scoring for the Tribe as Nicole Pottkotter racked up seven steals and scored 14 points, and Chelsey Leuthold had six steals and 12 points.

"The two sophomores are really starting to come around for us defensively," said Bihn, who has no seniors on his squad. "I think they're starting to get a grasp of what's going on. The speed of the game has slowed down a little bit (for them)."

Joanna Snyder extended her perfect shooting streak to seven quarters before finally missing with 3:17 left in the game.

The junior, who finished with nine points and a team-high seven rebounds, went 7-for-7 in Fort Recovery's win Thursday over New Knoxville.

Kendra Brunswick jumped up from the junior varsity squad and shot 4-of-5 from the field for nine points.

"That's pretty impressive," said Bihn of Snyder's run, while also complimenting her passing and defense. "She's in a groove right now. ... She did a lot of stuff today she had to do for us."

"That's what we brought her up there for," he added of Brunswick, who is averaging 18 points per game for the JV squad. "We thought she deserved a chance. It's a big shot in the arm to have a kid off the bench who can score like that."

Kelsey Wuebker added five assists in just 14 minutes.

Fort Recovery shot 46 percent compared to 34 percent for the Pirates. It also showed big improvement in ball-handling, turning the ball over just 13 times.

Riverside, which had 30 turnovers thanks to 25 Indian steals, made the score look more respectable with a 12-0 run in the fourth quarter against a Tribe lineup made up mostly of junior varsity players.

Carter shot 5-of-9 and led the Pirates with 12 points and nine rebounds. Megan Hurley added nine points.

"Our girls, they don't give up," said Riverside coach Mandy Lauck. "No matter what the score is they're going to fight and try to come back.

"We've been in games where we've been down 17-0 before and we've fought back and made it a ball game. The one thing about these girls is they have a lot of heart and they work hard."

Junior varsity

Fort Recovery dominated throughout, holding the Pirates to just 22 percent shooting in a 66-22 victory.

The Indians built a 19-point halftime lead, and then outscored Riverside 16-1 in the third quarter. The Pirates shot just 9-of-41 and turned the ball over 33 times.

Kendra Brunswick made nearly as many field goals as the entire Riverside team, shooting 8-of-12 and scoring 20 points. Kelsey Brockman went 6-of-10 for 12 points.

Holly Brunswick had seven rebounds and four assists, and Abby Huelskamp added six rebounds, four assists and four steals. Olivia Thien also grabbed six rebounds, and Alyssa Brackman had four assists.

Brooklynn Purtee paced Riverside with seven points and three assists.[[In-content Ad]]