Losing streak finally ends for Indians (02/07/04)

FORT RECOVERY — It’s finally over.

The Fort Recovery boys basketball team ended its nine-game losing streak Friday night with a 64-53 win over the Parkway Panthers at Fort Site Fieldhouse.

“It feels good,” said junior Dusty Tobe, who finished with 11 points. “We’ve been on this for a long time. Coach (Brian Patch) just told us to keep playing hard and we’d get out of it eventually.”

Patch was equally happy that the long slump — which lasted a month and a half in the middle of his first season at the helm of the Indians — is over.

“It feels great,” said Patch, whose team scored its last victory Dec. 19 at New Knoxville. “I’m really happy for the kids more than anything because they’ve been working so hard.”

Fort Recovery (4-11, 2-4 Midwest Athletic Conference) had a 44-37 lead when Patch took a timeout with 2:24 to play in the third quarter. Over the next five minutes the Tribe put the game away.

C.J. Tobe immediately got the streak started, hitting a long 3-pointer from the right wing on an assist from Mark Willmann. John Bihn came up with a steal and took it the distance for a lay-up to push the advantage to 49-37.

Bihn hit another free throw, Sean Kahlig and Greg Faller dropped in one field goal apiece, and Dusty Tobe drilled a 3-pointer during the remainder of a 15-4 Indian run.

Parkway coach Rusty Allen tried taking a timeout, but it was far too late. The Tribe’s 59-41 lead never dwindled below the 11-point final margin in the final five minutes of the contest.

“(I liked) our overall effort on defense and the way we took care of the ball,” said Patch, whose team finished the game with 13 turnovers.

“Obviously by taking care of the ball that allows your team the chance to score. It also gives us a chance at second-chance opportunities.”

Patch said he also thought a big problem in previous games was allowing turnovers to transform into easy points for the opposition. With that problem negated, Fort Recovery became an offensive juggernaut in the second and third quarters.

After hitting just 3-of-9 from the field in the first quarter and scoring all nine points on 3-pointers, the Indians’ offense got rolling. They battled back-and-forth with Parkway for much of the second quarter, but broke a 21-21 tie with an 8-0 run late in the half.

They took a 30-23 lead into the intermission.

Fort Recovery pushed the advantage to 37-25 with a 7-0 run early in the second half. The Panthers (1-14, 1-5 MAC) trimmed the deficit to seven points before the Tribe’s 15-4 run put the game away.

Faller earned scoring honors ahead of Tobe with 13 points on 6-of-8 shooting. Travis VanSkyock scored all of his nine points on 3-pointers, while Ryan Staugler finished with seven points, and C.J. Tobe hit a pair of triples for six points.

The Tribe finished with 10 3-pointers, and got its share of transition buckets.

Dusty Tobe led the team’s rebounding effort by grabbing seven caroms. He also helped key the defense, recording all of his four blocks in the first half.

“Our defensive intensity was up,” Dusty Tobe said. “We got a lot of steals that led to points. That helped.”

Parkway got three players into double figures, but couldn’t keep up with the Indians’ 10-player scoring attack. Mark Snyder paced the Panthers with 12 points and nine rebounds.

Ryan Berry finished with 11 points and five boards. Jordan Heckler was the third man in double figures as he notched 10 points.

With the losing streak over, Fort Recovery will head into perhaps its most difficult task of the season next week. The Indians will host Division III No. 2 Versailles Friday at 6:30 p.m.

Junior varsity

The Fort Recovery junior varsity team jumped on Parkway in the first half and managed to hold on for a 40-34 win despite dismal second-half shooting.

The Indians led 25-13 at halftime, but shot just 7-of-28 (25 percent) in the second half. The Panthers weren’t much better after the break, only hitting for 33 percent in the second half.

The Tribe took advantage of Parkway’s 22 turnovers in the victory.

Tyler Thobe and Stan Roessner shared a team-high 10 points. Thobe had six steals, and Roessner added four.

Jason VanSkyock narrowly missed a double-double as he scored nine points and grabbed 12 rebounds. Aaron Kahligh finished with three assists.

The Panthers’ Jason Fisher did manage a double-double with 12 points and 14 rebounds. Trevor Krogman scored a team-high 13 points.[[In-content Ad]]