Indians reach title game

COLDWATER, Ohio — Not much went wrong for the Indians on Wednesday.
The Commodores struggled to do anything correctly.
Fort Recovery High School’s girls basketball team scored the first 16 points of the game and forced 27 turnovers in a 63-18 crushing of Lima Perry in the Division IV sectional semifinal at Coldwater.
The Indians will meet the Ada Bulldogs at 8 p.m. Saturday. The Bulldogs disposed of Hardin Northern 62-29 in the first semifinal Wednesday.
“We start four seniors, but there just isn’t that much varsity experience or even basketball experience with those girls,” Perry coach Herb Lane said. “We just didn’t make good decisions. And on top of that, if you don’t knock down shots (and) get a little bit of confidence going, that’s tough.”
The struggles for Perry (4-19) started from the get-go, as Fort Recovery’s press caused the Commodores to turn the ball over on their first five possessions. In the meantime, the Indians (17-6) scored 16 consecutive points to begin the game.
Tori Lennartz, who was named first-team All-Midwest Athletic Conference, was 5-of-6 from the behind the arc and finished with game highs in points (18), rebounds (eight) and assists (four). She tallied 10 points in the first quarter, and began the game by swishing a triple from the left wing on an assist from Carley Stone.
After a basket by Stone, Jocelyn Kaiser stole the ball at midcourt for an easy lay in and an 8-0 Tribe lead. Then, Lennartz hit two more threes around a baseline jumper by Kaiser forcing Lane to call a timeout with one minute remaining.
It wasn’t until there was 38.2 seconds left that the Commodores finally hit the scoreboard when Kyazia Healy split a pair of free throws.
It took 64 seconds into the second quarter — and two more turnovers — for Perry to make its first field goal. Kylyn Collins grabbed a rebound at the defensive end, drove the length of the court and layed the ball in with her left hand.
The Indians went on a 12-2 run, which was aided by five turnovers, and had a 31-8 lead at halftime.

“I thought defensively we were pretty solid for the most part,” said FRHS coach Brian Patch, whose team is one game away from its first sectional title in three years. “We’re really long, we can get out on the perimeter and make things tough. I thought our press gave them some problems … with Carley and Grace (Thien) getting up, pressuring them and forcing them into trap areas.”
The disappointing part, Patch said, was Fort Recovery’s inability to finish around the bucket at times. There were instances in the second and third quarters especially the Tribe missed some easy shots in the paint. Second and third chances also missed the mark, but often led to a foul and being sent to the line.
“We didn’t execute and finish as well as we needed to inside,” Patch said. “If we had done that we’d score another 25 points or so.”
Fort Recovery scored on its first eight possessions in the third quarter — including a stretch of 11 consecutive points — to lead 42-11. After Healy hit two free throws, the Indians closed out the period on a 9-2 run, during which Stone had four consecutive points.
Stone a freshman, finished with 10 points and three steals, and junior Kendra Siefring also added 10 points to go with her seven rebounds and three assists.
Fort Recovery had a 51-15 advantage after three quarters, and tallied 11 consecutive points to begin the fourth quarter.