Fort falters late in two-point loss

FORT RECOVERY — The Tribe had a chance.
The ball just didn’t fall in its favor.
Fort Recovery High School’s girls basketball had a few too many empty possessions on opportunities to tie the game or take the lead Saturday in a 43-41 season-opening loss Saturday to the Wapakoneta Redskins.
“Early on we were sluggish a little bit, just going through the motions,” FRHS coach Brian Patch said. “They were ready to throw punches and we weren’t ready to throw punches back until maybe the second half.
“Then we had some possessions kind of cost us.”
Patch called a timeout with 7.7 seconds remaining in the game to set up a play with his team trailing 43-40.
The Tribe mishandled the inbound pass, but eventually got the ball to Claire Metzger in the left corner. The sophomore launched the potential game-tying 3-pointer but it was off target. Metzger absorbed contact from Malashia Moyler and was sent to the line for free throws with 3.3 seconds remaining.
She made the first and missed the second, prompting Wapakoneta coach Rusty Allen to call a timeout.
Metzger missed the third on purpose in an attempt to give her teammates a chance to corral the rebound to get another game-tying shot attempt, but the loose ball deflected off Kendra Siefring’s leg and went out of bounds with 1.1 seconds remaining.
“That was one of those plays where we didn’t execute like we wanted,” said Patch, whose team falls to 0-1. “We had confidence in Chloe, that’s why we put her out there.”
Metzger, who was 3-of-6 from beyond the arc on her way to a team-high 14 points in the junior varsity contest, sat the bench for the previous 31 minutes, 52.3 seconds and had entered the game cold.
“She is probably our best shooter, if not our best shooter in the program,” Patch said. “She shot it well in the JV game and she shoots it well in practice so we had confidence putting her out there.”
It was the last of a number of mistakes for the Indians, who had 15 turnovers in the game, missed crucial shots close to the basket and had a few defensive lapses as well.
Early in the fourth quarter, Wapankoneta’s Maddie Stiles hit a 3-pointer from the left wing, and after a FRHS junior Whitney Will split a pair of free throws Megan Fisher followed it up with a 3-pointer again from the left wing to tie the score at 36 apiece.
On both scoring plays the Indians’ defense got caught out of position.
“Those were both ball screens,” Patch said. “The thing is with our team, we have a lot of girls that are interchangeable. That is what we were telling them on those screens. Just switch it.
“We could have lost the game on one word. All you do is say ‘switch.’ You say ‘switch’ twice (and) we get out and cover those threes on Stiles and Fisher. Maybe those don’t go in and we have a chance to win the game.”
The Indians had other chances offensively late in the fourth quarter too. Siefring — she led all players with 15 points and nine rebounds — put too much on a shot below the rim and was blocked from behind on another close field goal attempt.
Sophomores Grace Thien and Stone and freshman Kiah Wendel all had difficulty getting the ball in through the hoop late in the period.
“We missed at least six or seven in the fourth quarter, point blank, a foot away from the bucket.” Patch said. “To beat good teams you can’t miss those shots. It wasn’t just one player. Quite a few spread that around, unfortunately.
“We just have to have the poise and be able to execute — take it up strong, finish and have the confidence knowing that you can hit those shots.”
Thien finished with eight points and three rebounds, while Carley Stone added six points and Will had five.
Fisher led the Redskins with 13 points.

Junior varsity
Wapakoneta missed fewer shots than Fort Recovery took during the first half to build an insurmountable deficit in a 53-22 victory.
The Redskins (1-0) jumped out to a 16-3 lead after the first quarter and pushed the advantage to 33-11 at halftime thanks to shooting 13-of-22 (59 percent) from the field. The Indians (0-1), meanwhile, were 2-of-12 (16 percent).
Wapakoneta outscored Fort Recovery 10-7 in the third quarter and 12-5 in the final period for the win.
Chloe Metzger led the Indians with 14 points and five rebounds. Hannah Knapke followed with six points, and Audra Metzger added two.