Tribe pulls away from Lancers

FORT RECOVERY — Calm down. Finish strong.

That was the Indians’ goal after their early 11-point lead had been cut to three late in the first half.

They accomplished it.

The Fort Recovery High School boys basketball team scored the final six points of the opening half and then dominated the second as it welcomed coach Jim Melton back to the bench with a 58-43 victory Wednesday over the Lincolnview Lancers.

“I feel great,” said FRHS coach Jim Melton, who missed about the first month of the season following a heart procedure. Bob Leverette coached the squad in his absence. “I’ve missed my team. I’ve missed my school, the community, the admin. I’ve missed the fans. It’s just great to get back, great to get back.”

After giving up the opening hoop of the game, the Indians scored the next 13 points in a row. But their lead was down to 26-23 when Melton called a timeout with 2:30 to play before halftime.

Fort Recovery (6-2) responded with a Cale Rammel hoop off of a Troy Homan assist. Following a Lancer turnover, Rammel scored again on a pull-up shot that he kissed off the glass with 32 seconds left. 

Lincolnview (1-6) held the ball in hopes of taking the last shot of the half only to have Garrett Richardson get stripped when he tried to split a pair of Indian defenders near the top of the key. Caleb Evers came up with the loose ball and passed ahead to Riley Hiser, whose layup fell through as time expired to push the FRHS advantage back to nine.

“We talked patience and closing out the half and being disciplined,” said Melton, whose team had played with frantic energy at times in the opening 16 minutes.

FRHS came out of halftime with a more deliberate mindset, working for more than a minute on their first possession before Logan Homan finally got the shot the team wanted.

 He connected to push the score to 34-23, and the Lancers were never able to pull within single digits again.

“When we came out in the third quarter, we just wanted to carve them up, be patient within our offensive scheme and get the shots we want, not the shots they want,” Melton said. 

Rammel set the scoring pace for the Indians, who closed the third quarter on an 11-2 run and then tallied the first eight points of the fourth before going heavily to the bench. He shot 8-of-16 and made all of his four free-throw attempts for 21 points. Owen Jutte was close behind with 18 points — he hit four 3-pointers — while no one on the Lincolnview squad reached double digits.

The victory was the fourth in a row for Indians following wins of 50-49 over Parkway, 44-39 over Ansonia and 48-45 Monday over Jefferson. Melton pointed to continued improvement from his team, even from as recently as two days earlier.

“I felt like from Monday night … we had a lot of turnovers, our box outs weren’t very good in the paint,” he said. “I felt like we took care of the ball tonight and we hit the boards a little bit better.”

The result was just seven turnovers in the first three quarters — the number ballooned when Melton went heavily to his bench late in the game — and a 36-23 advantage on the glass.



Junior varsity

Fort Recovery couldn’t keep up with the Lancers, who gradually added to their lead throughout in handing the home team a 50-38 defeat.

The Indians were down by just three after the first quarter and trailed 23-15 at halftime. Lincolnview pushed the advantage to double digits in the third quarter and hit enough free throws — six — in the fourth to keep FRHS at a distance.

Austin Bockrath scored 15 points to lead the Lancers to the win. Kreston Tow was right behind him with 14 points.

Reece Guggenbiller nine points were the team high for Fort Recovery. Riggs Tobe followed with eight points, and Wyatt Grover scored seven.