Valley girls rally

ST. MARYS, Ohio — The Indians seemed less sad than shocked.
It was hard to fathom how a 17-point lead could slip away.
Fort Recovery was primed for a trip to the district championship game for the second straight season, leading Upper Scioto Valley 44-27 with less than nine minutes to play. But the Rams came charging back, racking up 27 fourth-quarter points to knock off the Tribe 58-52 behind 30 points from Kayla Prater in their district semifinal game at Memorial.
“They knocked some shots down and they got some calls,” said FRHS coach Doug Bihn. “We just couldn’t stop their momentum. We used our timeouts up. We just couldn’t stop it once they got going.”
A dominant first half had Fort Recovery (16-7) up by 15, and they extended that lead to 17 on a Kylie Kahlig 3-pointer late in the third quarter. But the Rams (18-4) scored the final four points of period and never slowed down.
They got within single digits on Ali Goldsmith’s drive to the hoop with 5:50 to play. And then they grabbed the lead, 51-49, on a three-point play by Prater that came in the midst of an 8-0 run.
Kelly Nietfeld cut the gap to one with a free throw at the 1:30 mark, but a Fort Recovery turnover on its next possession led to a couple of Morgan Hunsicker free throws. Hunsicker and Prater went on to shoot 7-of-8 from the line in the final 39 seconds to finish off the comeback win.
“They don’t quit. They just don’t quit,” said Rams coach Mike Risner. “We struggled obviously in the first half, but I knew they were going to battle.
“We have a bunch of girls who just get after it. I’m really proud of them right now.
“It’s a special group of kids.”
Upper Scioto Valley will play New Knoxville in the district championship game on Saturday at 7 p.m. The Rangers (20-3) won their district semifinal game Thursday 52-43 over Ada (14-7).
After Kylie Kahlig scored 10 first-quarter points to power Fort Recovery to its 31-16 halftime lead, Prater dominated the second half. She scored 20 of her 30 points after the break, including a 3-pointer to open the fourth quarter and two three-point plays during the run that gave Upper Scioto Valley the lead.
Prater hit all of the Rams’ three 3-pointers and finished 11-of-14 from the foul line.
“She’s a great ball player. We knew she was,” said Bihn. “She was who we had to worry about this week. We don’t have a kid that can match up with her.”
Ali Goldsmith added six of her 12 points for Upper Scioto Valley in the fourth quarter. Hunsicker shot just 1-of-10 from the field, but hit six free throws and also dished out seven assists.
The loss for Fort Recovery conjured memories of another district semifinal heartbreaker in 2009, when the Tribe jumped out to a 17-3 lead on St. John’s only to have the Blue Jays storm back in the fourth quarter for a 48-46 win.
In that game the Indians couldn’t slow down outstanding 3-point shooting by St. John’s. Against Upper Scioto Valley, they struggled to hold on to the ball.
While the Rams found their touch after the intermission — they shot 52 percent (13-of-25) in the second half compared to 21 percent in the first — Fort Recovery was plagued by 14 turnovers, with most of those coming in the final period.
“We thought we could hurt them with man-to-man pressure, and we weren’t getting the good pressure in the second quarter like I wanted,” said Risner. “We were picking them up, but not really (putting on) a lot of pressure). It was just kind of token.
“We talked at halftime that we had to get up and force them to make some plays off the dribble. Fortunately we did.”
The loss came despite a huge effort from Kahlig, who scored seven points in the first 2:08 as the Indians jumped out to a 10-3 lead. The team’s leading scorer played her best game in weeks, finishing 8-of-10 from the field, including a perfect 3-for-3 from long distance, and totaling 22 points and 12 rebounds.
“She was due. We knew she was going to go off at some point in time,” said Bihn of the senior. “We thought she might be able to do it tonight. She played a nice ball game.”
Fellow seniors Kelly Nietfeld, Ericka Lennartz and Olivia Schwieterman followed with nine, seven and six points respectively. Schwieterman also had six assists.
“It’s been a great four years,” said Bihn, whose teams have won four straight sectional titles and went to the state final four a year ago. “I thanked (the seniors) … There’s not really much more you can say. They put a lot of time into this program, and I thank them for it. They’re a big part of what we did.”[[In-content Ad]]