July 23, 2014 at 2:10 p.m.
Jays beat Fort (02/20/2009)
FRHS girls basketball
Jays beat Fort (02/20/2009)
By By RAY COONEY-
FORT RECOVERY - Better free-throw shooting may not have given the Indians a share of the MAC title. But it would have made the final minute exciting.
The Fort Recovery High School girls basketball team missed the front end of three one-and-one tries in the final five minutes Thursday while St. John's buried nine foul shots in a row. The visiting Blue Jays, who are ranked No. 5 in Division IV, outscored the Indians 16-4 at the free-thrown line on the way to a 62-55 victory to claim a share of the Midwest Athletic Conference title.
FRHS (15-5, 7-2 MAC) shot just 4-of-8 from the foul line and two of its one-and-one misses came during an 8-0 run that gave St. John's the lead for good.
"If you don't make free throws you don't deserve to win," said Fort Recovery coach Doug Bihn. "It's pretty simple."
The Blue Jays (17-3, 8-1 MAC) hit nine straight free throws in the final 1:08 of the game before Zefiryn Bryan finally missed with 10 seconds to play. But by that time the visitors had built their lead to 10 points, and the Indians' Lauren Day hit a 3-pointer at the buzzer for the final margin.
"It's awesome," said St. John's coach Dan Grothouse, whose team shares the MAC crown with No. 3 New Bremen (19-1, 8-1 MAC). "Early in the year you always set goals for your team, and one of the goals is to win the MAC championship.
"You come down to a place like this, it's a tough place to play. Fort Recovery has a great basketball team. To be able to come in here and take away a MAC championship, what a phenomenal thing to be able to do. These kids accomplished a lot with this win today."
Fort Recovery, which handed New Bremen its only loss of the year, had a one-point lead early in the fourth quarter after a hoop from Chelsea Leuthold. But then Victoria Recker took over the game.
The St. John's senior reclaimed the lead for her team with a 3-pointer off of a Lindsy Reindel assist, and then returned the favor with an assist to Reindel for a 50-46 lead. After the Indians failed to covert the front end of a couple of one-and-one opportunities, Recker buried another triple and then hit all of her six free throws down the stretch.
She scored 12 of her team's final 17 points, finishing 4-of-6 from 3-point range and 8-for-8 at the foul line for a game-high 20 points.
"Tori did a great job," said Grothouse. "She hit some big shots for us. I thought she did a great job defensively.
"We struggled at times late in the year with hitting our free throws. We really concentrated a lot working on that. They hit them tonight."
St. John's went 16-of-20 (80 percent) from the stripe overall, and shot 20-of-36 from the field for 56 percent.
Reindel shot 6-of-8 and followed Recker with 15 points. She also had seven rebounds.
Bryan added 14 points to go along with team highs of nine rebounds and four assists.
Fort Recovery jumped on top with a 12-2 run in the first quarter, but saw a seven-point lead disappear as the Blue Jays answered with a 10-2 run bridging the quarter break. St. John's took a thee-point lead at halftime, but the Indians pulled even at 42 at the end of three quarters before free-throw shooting hurt them in the fourth.
The Tribe also struggled from long distance, missing their first nine 3-point attempts before Day's dropped in at the buzzer.
"We didn't shoot the ball extremely well tonight," said Bihn. "We usually shoot better than this. Part of that is a credit to Delphos ..."
He also said his team may have been a bit tired after a physical battle in a 62-61 loss Tuesday at Celina.
"It drained us," Bihn said. "The kids played their hearts out. ... It was a physical game. Celina's a physical team and this was a physical team, and the two back-to-back in three days took its toll on us."
But, he also noted that the pair of hard-fought games would prepare his team for tournament action. Fort Recovery will play either New Knoxville or Minster for a sectional championship Saturday, Feb. 28, at New Bremen at 6:15 p.m.
"This is a great tournament atmosphere for us," said Bihn. "We played two quality teams this week. We lost to both of them, but it doesn't matter. The season's over and we're starting 0-0 on Monday. Hopefully this kind of a test prepares us for the tournament."
Joanna Snyder led the Indians with 14 points in the defeat, and Chelsea Leuthold and Anne Koesters each added 10. Kendra Brunswick had eight points.
Leuthold finished with a team-high five rebounds, and Snyder totaled three assists.
Junior varsity
The Indians opened a lead in the fourth quarter and hit free throws down the stretch to finish off a perfect season with a 50-41 victory over St. John's.
Holly Brunswick led Fort Recovery (20-0) with 23 points, shooting 7-of-14 from the field and 9-of-13 from the foul line. Kelsey Brockman added six points and three rebounds, and Abby Huelskamp and Olivia Schwieterman also had six points apiece. Kylie Kahlig grabbed four rebounds, and Olivia Thien had three assists and three steals.
Tiffany Geise hit seven of her nine field-goal tries to lead the Blue Jays with 16 points. Courtney Grothouse scored seven points, and Bailey Calvelage had five rebounds.
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The Fort Recovery High School girls basketball team missed the front end of three one-and-one tries in the final five minutes Thursday while St. John's buried nine foul shots in a row. The visiting Blue Jays, who are ranked No. 5 in Division IV, outscored the Indians 16-4 at the free-thrown line on the way to a 62-55 victory to claim a share of the Midwest Athletic Conference title.
FRHS (15-5, 7-2 MAC) shot just 4-of-8 from the foul line and two of its one-and-one misses came during an 8-0 run that gave St. John's the lead for good.
"If you don't make free throws you don't deserve to win," said Fort Recovery coach Doug Bihn. "It's pretty simple."
The Blue Jays (17-3, 8-1 MAC) hit nine straight free throws in the final 1:08 of the game before Zefiryn Bryan finally missed with 10 seconds to play. But by that time the visitors had built their lead to 10 points, and the Indians' Lauren Day hit a 3-pointer at the buzzer for the final margin.
"It's awesome," said St. John's coach Dan Grothouse, whose team shares the MAC crown with No. 3 New Bremen (19-1, 8-1 MAC). "Early in the year you always set goals for your team, and one of the goals is to win the MAC championship.
"You come down to a place like this, it's a tough place to play. Fort Recovery has a great basketball team. To be able to come in here and take away a MAC championship, what a phenomenal thing to be able to do. These kids accomplished a lot with this win today."
Fort Recovery, which handed New Bremen its only loss of the year, had a one-point lead early in the fourth quarter after a hoop from Chelsea Leuthold. But then Victoria Recker took over the game.
The St. John's senior reclaimed the lead for her team with a 3-pointer off of a Lindsy Reindel assist, and then returned the favor with an assist to Reindel for a 50-46 lead. After the Indians failed to covert the front end of a couple of one-and-one opportunities, Recker buried another triple and then hit all of her six free throws down the stretch.
She scored 12 of her team's final 17 points, finishing 4-of-6 from 3-point range and 8-for-8 at the foul line for a game-high 20 points.
"Tori did a great job," said Grothouse. "She hit some big shots for us. I thought she did a great job defensively.
"We struggled at times late in the year with hitting our free throws. We really concentrated a lot working on that. They hit them tonight."
St. John's went 16-of-20 (80 percent) from the stripe overall, and shot 20-of-36 from the field for 56 percent.
Reindel shot 6-of-8 and followed Recker with 15 points. She also had seven rebounds.
Bryan added 14 points to go along with team highs of nine rebounds and four assists.
Fort Recovery jumped on top with a 12-2 run in the first quarter, but saw a seven-point lead disappear as the Blue Jays answered with a 10-2 run bridging the quarter break. St. John's took a thee-point lead at halftime, but the Indians pulled even at 42 at the end of three quarters before free-throw shooting hurt them in the fourth.
The Tribe also struggled from long distance, missing their first nine 3-point attempts before Day's dropped in at the buzzer.
"We didn't shoot the ball extremely well tonight," said Bihn. "We usually shoot better than this. Part of that is a credit to Delphos ..."
He also said his team may have been a bit tired after a physical battle in a 62-61 loss Tuesday at Celina.
"It drained us," Bihn said. "The kids played their hearts out. ... It was a physical game. Celina's a physical team and this was a physical team, and the two back-to-back in three days took its toll on us."
But, he also noted that the pair of hard-fought games would prepare his team for tournament action. Fort Recovery will play either New Knoxville or Minster for a sectional championship Saturday, Feb. 28, at New Bremen at 6:15 p.m.
"This is a great tournament atmosphere for us," said Bihn. "We played two quality teams this week. We lost to both of them, but it doesn't matter. The season's over and we're starting 0-0 on Monday. Hopefully this kind of a test prepares us for the tournament."
Joanna Snyder led the Indians with 14 points in the defeat, and Chelsea Leuthold and Anne Koesters each added 10. Kendra Brunswick had eight points.
Leuthold finished with a team-high five rebounds, and Snyder totaled three assists.
Junior varsity
The Indians opened a lead in the fourth quarter and hit free throws down the stretch to finish off a perfect season with a 50-41 victory over St. John's.
Holly Brunswick led Fort Recovery (20-0) with 23 points, shooting 7-of-14 from the field and 9-of-13 from the foul line. Kelsey Brockman added six points and three rebounds, and Abby Huelskamp and Olivia Schwieterman also had six points apiece. Kylie Kahlig grabbed four rebounds, and Olivia Thien had three assists and three steals.
Tiffany Geise hit seven of her nine field-goal tries to lead the Blue Jays with 16 points. Courtney Grothouse scored seven points, and Bailey Calvelage had five rebounds.
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