State line battle was worthy of prime time (12/19/05)

This game deserved its prime-time billing.

Most Saturday girls basketball games this time of year are played in the afternoon. But, the border war was given the evening time slot and it did not disappoint.

The Jay County Patriots led by as many as eight and the Fort Recovery Indians were up by as many as 14, but the game still came down to the final seconds with the visiting Tribe earning a 52-49 victory

“I thought they played a great game,” said Fort Recovery coach Jeff Roessner of the Patriots. “They had a great game plan against us. (Jay County coach Kirk Comer’s) kids executed it well.”

Comer was equally complimentary of Fort Recovery (4-1) after watching his team fall to 7-5. The Patriots trailed by 10 points with less than six minutes remaining in the game and battled to reclaim the lead before the Tribe’s two most experienced players snatched it back.

“What makes Fort Recovery so good is they miss shots, they have turnovers, they make mistakes just like we do, but they play with so much heart and determination. If they miss a shot they’re going to battle and battle until they put that ball in the basket,” said Comer. “We learned a lot tonight. It was another game where we matured. Fort Recovery is an outstanding basketball team. To come down to having a shot in the last minute after being down 10 in the fourth quarter showed heart. We never quit.”

Jay County rallied from down 48-38 to score 11 points in a row, taking the lead when Chelsea DeBoy hit 1-of-2 free throws with 1:11 remaining. But Holly Stein and Vicki Roessner, both juniors who have been varsity starters for their entire careers, wouldn’t allow the Indians to lose.

Stein quickly claimed the lead back for Fort Recovery, hitting a runner from the right side of the lane with 50 seconds remaining. The Patriots couldn’t score on their next trip down the floor, but quickly forced a jump ball to regain possession.

After a timeout they tried to get the ball inside to Markie Runyon, but the set play was denied by the Indians. The inbound pass instead went to Whitney Homan on an outlet pass, and her shot from about 12 feet was no good. Roessner grabbed the rebound, was fouled with 16.3 seconds left and buried both free throws for the final margin.

Stein finished with game highs of 16 points and 13 rebounds to lead the Indians. Roessner shot 5-of-10 from the field to finish with 14 points, and also grabbed six rebounds and dished out six assists.

“They’ve been playing a long time,” said Roessner. “It was good to see them step up in a game where we just had to have them. Tonight Vicki and Holly did a great job for us.”

It was most definitely a game of runs, with each team looking like it had a chance to pull away.

Fort Recovery opened with a 7-2 lead, forcing turnovers on Jay County’s opening two possessions and getting the Patriots to call a pair of timeouts in the first 1:33. But the Tribe offense went cold — pulling back its pressure defense — and Jay County went on a 16-3 run to grab an eight-point lead.

The Indians bounced back at the end of the first half with an 11-2 run to reclaim a 24-23 lead at the break. They added another 17-4 run to open the second half to push their lead to 14 points.

A 9-0 run by the Patriots had them within five at the end of the third quarter before Fort Recovery worked the lead back to 10 in the fourth. Then Jay County came roaring back only to have Stein and Roessner deny them the victory in the final minute.

Each of those runs was sparked by rebounding. Jay County built its first-half lead and based its fourth-quarter rally on great work on the glass led by 12 rebounds from Chelsea DeBoy.

Fort Recovery was at its strongest when Stein was dominating the boards.

“We had to match their intensity on the boards,” said Comer, who also got nine rebounds from Sara Garringer, six by Theresa Reinhart and five from Markie Runyon. “We did that for most of the game.

“I’m as pleased as I can be with a loss. Looking at the big picture we wanted to be able to compete with a good basketball team. We did that.”

Garringer paced the Patriots with 13 points and five assists. Reinhart scored 12 points, and Runyon had 11.

Tiff Gaerke joined Stein and Roessner in double figures for the Indians with 11 points. She also grabbed nine rebounds despite being saddled with three personal fouls less than four minutes into the second period.

Roessner said he felt his team was tired by the end of the game after a rough-and-tumble loss to Coldwater a night earlier.

“I think we ran out of gas,” he said. “Playing Friday night and then coming back and playing Saturday was a new experience for us — one that I hope we don’t have to do again.

“That Coldwater game took a toll on us physically. There wasn’t a player out there who didn’t have a bruise on them.”

Junior varsity

Jay County led the entire first half, fell behind in the third quarter, then came back in the final two minutes to top the Indians 42-37.

The Patriots were in control early and took a 21-15 lead into halftime before being outscored 13-3 in the third quarter. However, they rallied back against Fort Recovery, tying the game at 37 on a hoop by Gina Muhlenkamp with 1:41 remaining.

In the final minute the Indians turned the ball over on back-to-back possessions, Brittany O’Dell made three free throws and Muhlenkamp added another two for the final margin.

Muhlenkamp paced the Patriots with 13 points. Kaelee Keller scored eight points, and O’Dell added seven.

Joanna Snyder posted a game-high 17 points to lead Fort Recovery. Jill Pottkotter scored seven points.[[In-content Ad]]