Indians win again at Fort Site (01/24/05)

FORT RECOVERY — Fans at the Fort Site Fieldhouse could get used to this kind of tradition.

Prior to the season, the Fort Recovery boys basketball coaches and players talked about re-building tradition. Coming off of a 6-15 season, the sought to find a way back to days not too far gone.

They wanted this season to be more like 1998-99, when the Indians were state runners-up. They wanted to get away from the five years since then, which had just seen one with a record above .500 — 12-10 in 2000-01.

So far they’ve done exactly what they’ve wanted to do, especially on their home floor. They improved their record at the fieldhouse to 8-1 Saturday with a 58-46 victory over the Arcanum Trojans.

“This is a great place to play, even when the weather was bad the crowd was pretty good tonight,” said Indians coach Brian Patch, referring to the blowing snow and temperatures which were well below freezing. “Our student section is incredible. The home fans obviously help you out.

“The seniors made a goal not to lose at home. Obviously we have one loss ... but kids have a lot of pride in playing here at home.”

The Tribe, which is 9-4 overall, will play its next two games and six of its final seven on the road. The first of that stretch is at Midwest Athletic Conference rival Delphos St. Johns Friday at 6:30 p.m.

Their final home game will be Feb. 4 against New Bremen.

Fort Recovery made good on its second-to-last home contest after a first-half battle which included six lead changes.

Up by three at the break after a 6-0 run late in the first half, the Indians pushed the advantage to 42-36 with one period to play. Then they owned the fourth quarter.

Arcanum (6-9) went without a point for the first 5:36 of the final period, during which the Indians went on a 7-0 run. Freshman Clint Tobe capped the stretch with a 3-pointer off an assist from Ryan Staugler, putting the Tribe up by 13.

The Trojans put up 10 points in the final 2:24 of the game, but still never challenged Fort Recovery as it finished off a perfect weekend.

Travis VanSkyock, who hit a game-winning 3-pointer with six seconds left against Marion Local Friday night, again led the way with 20 points. He was one of only five Indians to score, but four of them reached double figures.

He was followed by Sean Kahlig, who shot 5-of-6 from the field, with 14 points, Clint Tobe with 13 and Dusty Tobe with 10.

Patch said the key to that scoring was a more patient second half, in which the Indians shot 53 percent after hitting for only 34 percent in the first.

“We had put up 15 threes in the first half,” said Patch. “There have been some games when we haven’t put up 15 threes in a game. As we told our kids at halftime, not that those were bad shots and we don’t want you to stop shooting them, but maybe be patient and try to get another pass or two to see if we can get a better look.”

The only downside of the win was that the Tribe got hammered on the glass, giving up 43 rebounds while grabbing only 26 of their own.

Darren Printz hustled to 12 of those Arcanum rebounds, six in the first quarter, but spent much of the game on the bench because of foul trouble.

VanSkyock was the leading rebounder for Fort Recovery with seven, and Sean Kahlig and Dusty Tobe each grabbed six.

Mike Eilerman scored 16 points to pace the Trojans, who shot just 31 percent for the game at 25 percent from 3-point range. Ty Cates also reached double figures with 11 points, and Printz and Adam Schwieterman each added eight.

Junior varsity

Arcanum fans went wild late in the junior varsity game after a 3-pointer by Nathan Greve gave them a one-point lead. But, their elation lasted all of seven seconds as Tony Diller took the lead right back for Fort Recovery as it topped the Trojans 46-43.

Greve hit his triple with 20 seconds left, but the Indians just stormed right back down the floor with Diller hitting a fast-break lay-up on the left side.

Diller missed the ensuing foul shot and Arcanum had a great chance to take the lead back.

However, Derek Abner was off the mark on a shot from point-blank range, and Luke Bihn grabbed the rebound and made a pair of foul shots with 1.5 seconds to go to for the final margin.

Diller took home scoring honors for the Tribe with 12 points. He added team highs of three assists and two steals to go with six rebounds.

Lucas Staugler also reached double figures with 10 points, and just missed a double-double as he grabbed nine rebounds. Eric Lamm added eight points and five rebounds, and Bobby Rammel scored seven points.

Greve notched 12 points and five rebounds for Arcanum. Jared Cates added 11 points and four assists.[[In-content Ad]]