Starfires stun Fort Recovery

FORT RECOVERY — South Adams sophomore Jared Grabau realized as the game progressed Tuesday night that his defender was allowing him to drive the lane.
With the score tied at 59 and less than 10 seconds remaining, Grabau got the ball at the top of the key, drove to the left side of the basket and put up a left-handed shot.
The ball bounced off the glass and went through the hoop, giving the Starfire boys basketball a 61-59 lead with 2.3 seconds remaining.
On the ensuing Fort Recovery possession, Brandon “Speedy” Schoen put up the potential game-tying bucket. As the buzzer sounded, his runner from just inside the 3-point line missed the mark.
The Grabau hoop capped off a 23-point comeback for the visiting Starfires, and gave the Indians their third loss at Fort Site Fieldhouse.
“I felt like we needed a boost at the end,” Grabau said of his game-winning shot. “I noticed that I could drive on my man and I just took it to him.
“He gave me an opening, and I took advantage.”
South Adams coach Andy Brown said the final play wasn’t anything he called. Conner Sealscott hauled in the rebound on a missed free throw by FRHS sophomore Caleb Martin, and Grabau found space in the final seconds to cap off an unlikely comeback.
“It wasn’t much that I called,” said Brown, whose team has won three in a row after dropping 21 straight dating back to last season. “There were a couple things I called in the second half that just came down to players making plays.”
Schoen, who was one of three Indians in double figures, hit a floater from near the free-throw line with 4:27 remaining in the third quarter to give Fort Recovery (2-5) a 47-24 lead.
That’s when the comeback began for South Adams (2-5). It went on a 10-point run to close out the quarter, sparked by a 3-pointer by Cole Myers, buckets by Grabau and Derek Wanner and a trio of free throws — two by Marcus Teeter and another by Grabau.
The Starfires continued to chip away at the deficit, taking advantage of six turnovers by Fort Recovery in the fourth quarter. Sealscott connected for two of his six points — he also grabbed a game-high 10 rebounds — and following a free throw by Darien Sheffer, Wanner went on a personal 6-0 run to get South Adams within nine, 50-41.
Back-to-back 3-pointers by Teeter and Myers with less than two minutes to play got South Adams to within five, 56-51, and following a bucket by Martin, Grabau split a pair of free throws and Wanner scored the next four points to make it 58-56.
Micaiah Cox pushed the Tribe’s lead to three, 59-56, when he split a pair of one-and-one free throws, and Teeter came up big on the ensuing possession to tie the game on a long-range shot from the left corner with 16 seconds on the clock.
Teeter finished with 13 points as four Starfires scored in double figures. Wanner had a team-high 17 points, Myers added 14 and Grabau chipped in with 11 points — none of which bigger than his game-winner.
“That’s a tough one,” said first-year FRHS coach Chris Guggenbiller, whose team surrendered 27 points in the fourth quarter. “Like I told the guys (after the game), it’s a definite punch in the gut losing a game in that fashion, when you’re up 20 and losing it by two.
“Hats off to South Adams. They never stopped playing and never stopped attacking the basket.”
The first 20 minutes of the contest belonged to the home team. Fort Recovery cruised to a comfortable 39-22 lead heading into intermission, thanks to 14 of Martin’s game-high 18 points. The sophomore scored six of his first-half points on offensive rebound put-backs, and hit two mid-range jumpers in addition to being on the receiving end of assists by Cox.
Martin was 8-of-9 from the field in the first half. Schoen and Cox, who also had four blocks, each had six points heading into intermission. The Indians built their big lead by outscoring the Starfires 18-6 in the second quarter, including a 10-2 run to close out the period.
Schoen assisted on three straight buckets by Cox to start the third before his floater gave the Tribe its biggest lead of the contest.
“I couldn’t be more proud of them,” Brown said of the Starfires. “There were a lot of ‘me’ guys in the first half, and in the second half it was ‘we.’
“We got stops and we got scores when we needed to get them and I think they really embraced that.”

Junior varsity
Unlike their varsity counterparts, Fort Recovery’s junior varsity was able to hang on to its lead in a 56-25 defeat of South Adams.
The Indians limited the Starfires to seven points in the second quarter and just two in the third, building a 47-21 lead heading into the final frame.
Jackson Hobbs and Kyle Knapke of Fort Recovery shared the game high with 10 points each, and Jason Roessner chipped in with nine points.
Terry Dawn led the Starfires with five points, and Nick Wurster added four.