Tribe’s streak hits seven

FORT RECOVERY — The Indians’ offense has found a groove.
The defense has matched the intensity.
Tribe coach Brian Patch just hopes his team can sustain both.
Fort Recovery High School’s girls basketball team scored eight or more consecutive points in each quarter Monday, had a trio of players reach double figures and forced nearly 30 turnovers in a 59-25 throttling of the Van Wert Cougars.
“I thought we started out the game really well,” said Patch, whose team won its seventh game in a row and meets state-line rival Jay County at noon Saturday in Portland. “We have a tendency to put things on cruise control … It wasn’t like we took it easy, but as we thought it was going to be easy we started to let up a little bit with our focus and effort.
“We can’t do that. We have to make sure we come out, play well and play strong the whole game because against good teams you’re going to have to.”
Fort Recovery (7-1) scored the first 15 points of the game, and when Van Wert (0-9) got its first bucket with 1 minute, 56 seconds, left on the clock in the first quarter, the Tribe’s shots — many from underneath the hoop — started to miss the mark. The Indians were 14-of-37 (37.8 percent) from the field in the first half.
“Those easy layups we had, we missed,” said Patch. “Some of them we did get them inside (and) we did miss some of those easy shots. Some of that comes from lack of focus and some toughness stuff.”
The lack of focus goes back to Patch’s point about being in cruise control. It allowed the Cougars, who have lost four consecutive games by 32 or more points, to get within three possessions.
A put-back by Abby Jackson and a pair of free throws each from Reagan Priest and Ella Butler put the Cougars within nine, 23-14, with less than four minutes remaining in the second quarter.
But the Cougars went the rest of the half without a point because of turnovers and mental mistakes.
“That is where we’ve been all year; giving up turnovers (and) giving up offensive rebounds,” said VWHS coach Lance Moonshower. Fort Recovery closed out the opening half on a 10-0 run, and the Cougars never got closer than 16 points the rest of the way. “We really press on those two things.
“Let’s clean those two things to start with. Then we have to worry about shooting the ball.”
Van Wert was 7-of-33 (21.2 percent) from the field and often times looked as if it didn’t want to shoot the ball. The Cougars had possessions during which they passed six or seven times around the perimeter without a dribble.
On top of being timid with shots, the Cougars made ill-advised attempts to get the ball to teammates and finished with 29 turnovers, many of which led to fast break points at the other end.
“We are very much indecisive about what we’re doing,” Moonshower said. “We had several turnovers where we just stood there and looked at a girl for quite a while, and when she finally back-cut we threw the pass to where she was.
“We can live with turnovers if we’re aggressive — we’re going to the basket and trying to do things — but those indecisive, passive turnovers are what we have to clean up.”
Fort Recovery’s Whitney Will had 13 of her game-high 20 points in the first half, and she grabbed 10 rebounds for a double-double. The junior was 8-of-15 from the field, made both of her attempts from 3-point range and sank two free throws.
“She has a lot of energy and she did a great job of going to the glass,” Patch said. Will is averaging 10.8 points per game, second on the team behind Kendra Siefring’s 11.9. Siefring had six points Monday. “She scored almost every way possible and she’s capable of doing that.
“She has all the ability and we have the trust in her to make those plays, she just has to have the confidence to go out there and do it.”
Sophomore Kiah Wendel and junior Jocelyn Kaiser added 10 points each for the Tribe. Wendel added four rebounds and three steals, and Kaiser tallied three boards and four steals.

Junior varsity
Fort Recovery held Van Wert to one point in the opening period and rolled to a 28-11 victory in a two-quarter game.
The Tribe’s Chloe Metzger scored a game-high nine points, and Brooke Gaerke added eight to go with her eight rebounds. Hanna Knapke chipped in with seven points.
Avery Cowan led Van Wert with five points.