Indians stumble in road defeat

MINSTER, Ohio — The Indians never got into the groove that had helped them to 14 wins.
Fouls on both ends of the court prevented the Fort Recovery High School girls basketball team from finding its tempo in a 46-37 loss to the Division IV No. 7 Minster Wildcats on Thursday.
“The game was choppy,” said coach Brian Patch, whose team was whistled for 22 of the game’s 40 fouls. “There was no rhythm. There was nothing smooth about it.”
“Late in the game we have four (players) with four fouls,” said Patch. Sophomores Grace Thien and Carley Stone, junior Whitney Will and Kendra Siefring were all one away from fouling out. Thien got her fifth foul in the final minute of the game. “We just never got in rhythm, never got comfortable and never really could play the game.”
Trailing by three points 90 seconds into the third quarter, Fort Recovery (14-3, 6-1 Midwest Athletic Conference) was forced to play an extended period of time without Siefring, its leading scorer.
She was whistled for her fourth foul and sat the rest of the period.
“When she plays 17 minutes (and) normally averages 30, that takes out a lot that we do,” Patch said.
With Siefring on the bench for the majority of the second half, she and Will were not able to get much going underneath the hoop.
As that part of the Indians’ offense was gone, the defense of Minster (16-3, 8-0 MAC) was able to pressure the Tribe’s guards and keep them in check too.
“Siefring and Will are their leading scorers,” Minster coach Nann Stechschulte said. “I told our girls it’s a marriage between the guards and the post. Our defensive guards needed to put pressure on the ball and help out the post and not let them get it to the big kids inside. I thought we did that.
“We also didn’t want Thien to get hot because she can nail the three, and I don’t think we allowed her to set her feet once.”
Thien entered the game a team-leading 39 percent 3-point shooter, but she was held without a bucket from long range on her five attempts. She finished with two points.
“I felt like as this game progressed we almost had to be perfect to get the win,” Patch said. “That is almost impossible. We made some silly mistakes — not finishing, not getting box outs — things that we’ve been talking to them about.”
The Indians turned the ball over at crucial times in the third quarter that helped the Wildcats build their lead. After Siefring’s fourth foul, back-to-back turnovers led to points at the other end for Minster, who turned a 22-19 lead into a 27-19 advantage.
Later in the same quarter, miscommunication on defense left Minster’s LeAnn Huelsman open for two uncontested 3-pointers. She sandwiched the threes from the right wing and left corner around a basket by Stone.
“Obviously those are backbreakers but at the same time those are mental mistakes we normally don’t do either,” Patch said. “We leave a shooter we know can hit shots, we don’t talk about two screens and leave her uncovered. It kind of came back and bit us in the butt in the end.”
Stone led the Indians with 11 points. Siefring scored 10 points in her limited action, and Will tallied 10 as well to go with her game-high seven rebounds.
Huelsman’s 11 points was a team-high for the Wildcats, and Rosie Westerbeck joined her in double figures with 10.
The loss likely ended any hopes the Indians had for conference championship, which would have been their first since 1992. Minster has one conference game remaining at Coldwater (8-10, 2-5 MAC), while the Indians travel to St. Henry Feb. 11 to take on the Redskins (4-15, 0-7 MAC).
“That is the part that stinks,” Patch said. “We wanted to win the MAC and right now it probably slipped away from us.
“I think the learning point is some of our kids grew up tonight. We are playing three sophomores right now in an important game. Those were the ones who were in there in the huddle pulling our team together. I think that is a big step for us.”

Junior varsity
A slow start doomed Fort Recovery in a 50-15 loss to Minster.
The Indians (5-11) fell behind 10-2 after the opening period and trailed 31-5 at half. An 8-6 advantage in the third quarter made it 39-11 in favor of the home team heading into the final period.
Elise Gehle had four points to lead the Tribe, and Rachel McAnulty followed with three points. Claire Metzger, Brooke Gaerke, Aleigha Jenkins and Chloe Metzger tallied two points each.
Kendra Thien led the Wildcats with nine points.