Indians roll to third straight victory

NEW KNOXVILLE, Ohio — Once the Indians started clicking offensively, their hosts could not keep up.
Fort Recovery High School’s boys basketball team trailed just once Friday, and then used a couple of big first-half runs to open up a double-digit lead. The advantage never slipped to fewer than 13 points in the second half in a 64-42 victory over the New Knoxville Rangers.
The win was the third in a row for the Indians (12-5, 5-2 Midwest Athletic Conference), who prior to the current streak had dropped three straight to Coldwater, Greenville and Minster.
FRHS was behind briefly at 4-2 before Brandon “Speedy” Schoen scored to tie the game and then came up with a steal. That led to Chase Bruns splitting a pair of free throws, and the Indians never trailed again. Those points kicked off a 14-2 run that was capped by a Matt Bihn and included five New Knoxville turnovers.
A 14-4 run later in the first half, ties time finished off by a Darien Sheffer 3-pointer from a Caleb Martin assist, extended the advantage to 30-15. The Tribe, which shot 57 percent from the field in the first half and 53 percent for the game, pushed ahead by as many as 22 in the second half.
Bruns led an efficient trio of double-figure scorers as he shot 6-of-9 from the field, hit two 3-pointers and finished with 15 points. Martin missed just one of his six field-goal tries for 11 points, and Sheffer was 4-of-6 as he added 10 points.
Martin and Micaiah Cox each grabbed five rebounds for Fort Recovery, which will try to continue its winning streak tonight when it visits Ansonia, and Schoen had four assists and four steals.
Zach Neuman went 5-of-6 from the field and scored 14 points for New Knoxville, but the rest of the squad was just 10-of-26 (38 percent). Nick Topp had eight points, and Jonah Lageman grabbed six rebounds.

Junior varsity
Fort Recovery was in control from the start as it blasted the Rangers 60-23.
The Indians grabbed a 17-4 lead in the opening period and were up by 18 at halftime. Then they shut out New Knoxville in the third quarter.
Payton Jutte’s 16 points set the pace for the Indians, who shot 53 percent. Trevor Vaughn added 10 points and eight rebounds, and Clayton Pearson and Evan Post each had five assists.
Jack Bartholomew had nine points for the Rangers.