Tourney vengeance

COLDWATER, Ohio — Chelsea Pottkotter took an outlet pass deep in the left corner.
She kicked the ball back out to Olivia Schiweterman, who promptly buried a 3-pointer from the left wing.
Nann Stechshulte tried to call a timeout to stop the bleeding, but as Schwieterman ran to her bench, arms out airplane-style, it was clear there was no slowing down the Indians.
Schwieterman’s 3-pointer came in the midst of a 17-0 run that powered Fort Recovery to a 48-33 victory over Stechshulte’s Minster Wildcats in the Division IV sectional championship game Saturday at Coldwater.
“That gave me goosebumps,” said Schwieterman, whose bomb followed a 3-pointer by Kelsey Fiely and gave the Tribe a 31-23 lead with 2:44 to play in the third quarter. “That was a great feeling. I knew right there that the energy just picked up. … That was a game-changer …”
The Indians (16-6) fell behind 8-0 and trailed for most of the first half until Kylie Kahlig’s free throws with 26 seconds left gave them a one-point advantage at the intermission.Minster (14-7) reclaimed the lead with a 3-pointer from Kayla Albers to open the second half. But the next 12 minutes belonged to the Tribe.
Fort Recovery crashed the offensive boards, with Ericka Lennartz getting a put-back hoop to tie the score and Kelly Nietfeld following her own miss to give the Tribe the lead. Then the Indians turned to the long-distance shot, with Fiely first hitting her 3-pointer off a Lennartz assist and then Schwieterman burying her triple in transition.
“It was just awesome,” said Fiely, who shot 4-of-5 from the field and shared the game high of 10 points with Schwieterman. “I was so pumped.”
The Minster timeout did little to slow the Indians, who pushed their lead to 35-23 when Pottkotter hit a 3-pointer to close the third quarter.
Fort Recovery added the first three points of the fourth quarter before the Wildcats finally broke a 12-minute scoreless streak on Claire Fischer’s 3-pointer with 3:25 to play. But Minster never closed to within single digits as the Tribe  earned its fourth straight sectional title.
“Every one of them is great,” said FRHS coach Doug Bihn, whose team advances to play Upper Scioto Valley (17-4) in the district semifinals at St. Marys Thursday at 6 p.m. “The kids played hard and they got the job done.
“You’ve just got to get them believing, and I finally think they’re starting to believe. I hope we can carry some momentum from this.”
The Indians have lost four straight regular-season meetings to Minster, including 46-40 this season.
“Minster has always been one of our toughest opponents,” said Nietfeld. “I know as a senior, they’ve been one that we’ve lost to many times and we really wanted to get them.”
“We worked really hard for this game,” added Lennartz. “We wanted this game so bad. We prepared really hard for them, and when we came out tonight there was no stopping us.”
Minster looked like the unstoppable squad early as it used a quick-passing attack to get open looks and build an 8-0 lead. The Wildcats were still up by five at the quarter break and stayed ahead until Kahlig’s free throws in the final minute of the opening half.
Fort Recovery forced nine third-quarter turnovers and dominated the rebounding battle in the second half to take control.
“They played great,” said Stechshulte, whose leading scorer was Fischer with nine points. “They hustled. They crashed the boards. They got to every loose ball it seemed like. It was their night.”
Lennartz followed Schwieterman and Fiely with nine points for the Tribe, and Pottkotter added eight. Lennartz and Pottkotter each grabbed eight rebounds and led the Indians to a 24-13 advantage on the glass in the second half.
Bihn and his players also said their strategy on defense — a 2-3 zone — played a major roll in limiting the Wildcats to 24 percent shooting, including 18 percent in the second half.
“We haven’t played zone in four years and we came out tonight and played a 2-3 zone,” said Bihn. “I told the kids, I want to see the look on Nann’s face when we play a 2-3 zone. We just don’t do it. Tonight it was the right call for us I think.”[[In-content Ad]]