Indians run away

FORT RECOVERY — There were seven lead changes in the first 12 minutes.

But with Ellie Gabel sidelined, New Knoxville couldn’t keep up when the Indians found their offensive groove.

Fort Recovery closed the opening half on an 11-2 run, then scored the first dozen points of the third quarter as it cruised to a 50-28 victory Thursday over the Rangers to stay in contention for the conference title.

“Our defensive intensity definitely picked up, and we knew that’s what we were going to have to do to create some gap,” said FRHS coach Holly Gann, whose team limited the Rangers to a single field goal over a span of more than nine minutes. “Offensively, we’ve been struggling. We took a step back and let the offense come to us.”

The Indians (10-3 overall) are now alone in second place in the Midwest Athletic Conference at 4-1 as they trail only Division IV No. 4 Marion Local (14-1, 5-0 MAC), which knocked off Division IV No. 3 Minster (11-3, 3-2 MAC) by a 33-32 score Thursday. FRHS will visit Maria Stein to take on the Flyers in two weeks.

The lead was traded back-and-forth through the middle of the second quarter, with Kierra Wendel’s drive to the hoop at 4:15 pushing the Tribe ahead 12-11. With Gabel on the bench — she twisted her ankle at the 5:31 mark of the second quarter, but was able to return in the second half — New Knoxville (9-5, 3-2 MAC) was unable to respond.

Allie Vaughn assisted on each of the next two FRHS hoops — one under the basket by Whitley Rammel and a 3-pointer from Wendel — and then scored two herself from the foul line. Brooke Kahlig added another pair of free throws that gave the Indians an eight-point lead at the half.

“She was out for about three or four minutes and it kind of went south,” said Hegemeir of the sophomore who still led the team with 10 points.

Even when Gabel returned after the intermission, Fort Recovery continued its tear. Val Muhlenkamp recorded a 3-point play, and Vaughn and Wendel scored on back-to-back drives to the basket to spur timeout by the Rangers. The run lasted five more points, including a 3-pointer from Kahlig, before Megan Jurosic split a pair of free throws for New Knoxville.

The visitors scored the final seven points of the third quarter, but by then the game was too far gone and FRHS was far too good at the foul line — 13-of-14 — to let the game get away.

“Thirteen of 14, that’s huge,” said Gann. “We can hang our hats on that one. Because right now our free-throw percentage is at like 48%. So we can at least hope for that stat to go up after this. We are getting a lot better.”

Muhlenkamp (5-for-5) and Wendel (4-for-4) led the effort from the foul line for the Indians.

In fact, Wendel didn’t miss a single shot she took all night. She made all of her four two-point tries and drained her only shot from long distance en route to a game-high 15 points.

“She had been struggling. We’ve been working on her shot,” said Gann. “And so it was nice to see her come out and perform.”

Muhlenkamp followed with 11 points to go with her game-high eight rebounds, leading the Tribe to a 24-15 advantage on the glass. Vaughn finished with nine points, six rebounds and five assists.



Junior varsity

Fort Recovery scored at the fourth-quarter buzzer to force overtime but managed just a single point in the extra session in a 37-31 defeat.

The Indians had scored just three points in the fourth quarter before Elena Evers’ put-back at the buzzer tied the game. New Knoxville’s Carsyn Henschen, who finished with a game-best 17 points, scored less than five seconds after the jump ball to start overtime and her team never looked back.

Faith Grube’s 10 points led the way for FRHS (3-9). Evers added six points.