Mississinawa Valley no match for the Fort (12/01/04)

FORT RECOVERY — Seven different players scored for the Indians. And that was just in the first quarter.

Nine Fort Recovery players scored in the game and all 11 saw at least a full quarter of action as the girls basketball team dominated the Mississinawa Valley Blackhawks Tuesday, 58-27.

The Indians (2-1) trailed just once in the entire contest, 5-4. From that point they went on a 12-2 run, the first of three huge scoring stretches which led to the blowout.

Many of those points came off of Mississinawa Valley turnovers as the visiting team gave the ball away 13 times in the first quarter and 38 in the game. Fort Recovery racked up 24 steals, including five by sophomore point guard Vicki Roessner, and four each by sophomores Holly Stein and Sara Fortkamp.

“We knew coming in that Fort Recovery was going to press the heck out of us,” said Mississinawa Valley coach Chris Hanes. “They do a very good job the half court and the full court.”

The Fort Recovery lead was seven points at the end of the first quarter, and the Blackhawks (1-2) cut it to five early in the second. That was as close as they would get.

Senior Krystal Rammel hit a pair of free throws at the 6:14 mark of the second quarter, triggering a 14-0 run which put the game in the Indians’ firm control. Roessner followed with back-to-back hoops, forcing a timeout by Hanes.

However, sophomore Tiff Gaerke put in back-to-back hoops following the timeout prompting Hanes to call another. Stein scored after the timeout, and Gaerke added one more hoop to finish the rally which spanned nearly six minutes.

Roessner finished with a team-high 15 points on 6-of-11 shooting. She also had a game-high six assists and finished with two rebounds.

Rammel hit back-to-back hoops to start play after the intermission, scoring 10 of her 14 points in the second half and finishing 6-of-10 from the field. Fort Recovery opened the half with a 6-0 mini-spurt and added a 13-0 run bridging the third and fourth quarters.

“In the second half (Rammel) came on,” said Indians’ coach Jeff Roessner. “We got three good possessions in a row and she got a couple of nice baskets for us.”

Tiff Gaerke just missed a double-double as she had eight points and 10 rebounds. Ciera Rammel notched seven points and four rebounds, and Stein added six boards and two assists.

Whitney Gelhaus was the only Mississinawa Valley player with more than four points as she finished with a game-high 19. She had a double-double with 10 rebounds, and she also blocked four shots.

Kayla Neargarder was next for the Blackhawks with four points and four rebounds.

Fort Recovery, which finished third in the Midwest Athletic Conference last year, will open league play Thursday when it hosts Versailles at 6 p.m.

“Versailles is very good ...” said Roessner. “They’re going to be very patient and they’re going to get the shot they want. We’re going to try to do some things to take them out of that.”

Junior varsity

The Tribe dominated the junior varsity game from start to finish for a 42-9 victory.

Mississinawa went scoreless in the first and third quarters, taking 10:33 before getting its first basket and 8:57 before scorings its first points of the second half. Fort Recovery led 12-0 after one period, and used the 16-0 third-quarter advantage to cruise to the win.

Abby Niekamp paced the Indians with 11 points, and Val Fortkamp followed with 10 on 5-of-9 shooting. Fortkamp also racked up 12 steals and three assists, both team highs.

Jill Pottkotter notched nine rebounds, and Lauren Wenning added five steals and two assists.

Four Mississinawa Valley players each scored two points. The Blackhawks finished 3-of-17 (18 percent) from the field, taking one-third as many shots as the Indians.[[In-content Ad]]