Fort Recovery grinds out victory

FORT RECOVERY — It was a stereotypical Midwest Athletic Conference battle Friday night at Fort Site Fieldhouse.

Two teams, desperately in need of a conference win, fighting for every inch on the court in a physical game. The contact wasn’t too excessive, but the officials seemed to disagree — there were 43 total fouls called.

The Fort Recovery High School boys basketball team struggled to maintain its lead and then fell behind early in the fourth quarter, but closed on a 14-2 run to grind out a 61-50 victory over the Parkway Panthers.

“It really just takes the weight off our chest,” said FRHS senior Micaiah Cox, whose Tribe squad had lost the previous four games. “We’ve had people down our backs saying ‘Get the next one.’”

Cox had a game-high 15 points and Jason Roessner joined him in double figures with 10, as the senior tandem combined for eight of the final 14 points for the Indians (10-5, 4-2 MAC). 

Parkway (5-13, 0-6 MAC), which has lost 43 consecutive games against conference opponents, trailed 47-43 less than two minutes into the fourth quarter before Jack Wehe made a pair of free throws and Nick Hawk drained a 3-pointer from the right wing for a 48-47 PHS advantage.

Fort Recovery’s Ryan Braun hit a jumper from the right baseline to give the Tribe a one-point lead, and a Cox basket put the Indians ahead by three. Wehe followed with two more free throws on the next trip down the court, but the Panthers weren’t able to score again. Hawk missed two free throws, and Parkway had back-to-back turnovers and missed a 3-pointer in the final minute.

“I thought we had decent looks late,” said PHS coach Doug Hughes, whose Panther team last beat a MAC opponent Feb. 17, 2012. “We missed some free throws that we had to have late. We turned the ball over at crucial times a couple times. 

“I thought we had good looks, we just weren’t able to knock them down. They were short. Maybe fatigue had set in a little bit.”

It was difficult for either team to get into much of a rhythm on at either end of the court, as nearly every bit of contact seemed to get whistled for a foul. There were 23 fouls in the first 16 minutes, and Parkway was in the bonus with 3:13 to play in the third quarter as the Tribe was called for its seventh foul compared to just three for the Panthers.

“We really just have to keep our composure,” Cox said of fighting through the foul calls. “We can’t let refs determine how the games go.”

FRHS coach Chris Guggenbiller was unavailable for comment after the game.

With the Indians in foul trouble, they got solid production from the bench, which had to make up for the loss of Caleb Martin, who was out with an ankle injury.

“We rely on (Martin) a lot to be a rim protector because he’s very athletic,” Cox said. “Having him out of the game, it is hard to deal with because they got a lot of stuff outside.” 

Parkway was 8-for-23 from long range.

Payton Jutte came off the bench to finish third on the team in scoring with nine points before fouling out with 2:59 left in the fourth quarter. Travis Sutter contributed six points and Trevor Vaughn had two points.

Parkway’s Wehe finished with 14 points to tie Mason Baxter — he had four of the Panthers’ eight 3-pointers — for the team lead. Hawk added a dozen points.



Junior varsity

Fort Recovery scored nearly half of its points in the first quarter and led at halftime but lost to Parkway, 59-48.

The Indians trailed 23-20 after the opening period and took a 32-30 lead into intermission. The Panthers outscored the home team 12-6 in the third period to lead 42-38 heading into the fourth quarter.

Reese Rogers made three of his seven 3-point attempts and finished with a game-high 19 points. Noah Lennartz and Ethan Schoen scored 11 and 10 points respectively to join him in double figures.

Preston Stober led Parkway with 14 points.