Tribe surges past Wave

FORT RECOVERY — The Indians were nearly flawless handling the ball offensively.

Their pressure at the other end of the court was smothering.

And the intensity only increased as the clock ticked away.

Fort Recovery High School’s boys basketball team only committed four turnovers, limited the Green Wave to just three field goals in the second half and none in the final 10 minutes Saturday en route to a 68-23 triumph over Greenville at Fort Site Fieldhouse.

“I liked our intensity better in the second half,” said FRHS coach Michael Bashore, who has now beaten his former team in back-to-back seasons while leading the Indians. “I thought we were just going through the motions a little bit in the first half.

“In the end I felt we were just a little bit more athletic than they were.”

After outscoring the winless Green Wave (0-9) 12-3 in the second quarter to take a 29-11 advantage into halftime, Fort Recovery (5-3) began the third period on an 11-0 run. Grant Knapke nailed consecutive 3-pointers following Green Wave misses from the perimeter, then Derek Jutte had a pair of steals and easy lay-ins at the other end.

“We’ve been struggling getting on shooters,” said Jutte, who finished with 10 points on 4-of-5 shooting with a pair of free throws. “We just brought the intensity out tonight and tried our best to limit their good scorers. … We just had a lot of intensity and it worked out for us in the end.”

Greenville scored its first point of the second half with 3:55 remaining in the third, and got the first of just three field goals after intermission with a 3-pointer from the right wing. But turnovers and missed shots hampered any chance the Green Wave had to make the score respectable.

The Green Wave was just 3-of-14 (21.4 percent) from the field in the second half, including misses on each of their seven fourth-quarter attempts, after going 5-of-13 (38.5 percent) in the first 16 minutes.

They also totaled 22 turnovers.

“We only had four turnovers, we probably turned them over 25 times maybe,” said Bashore, who overestimated the Greenville total by three. “Clayton Pearson and Grant Knapke did a fantastic job on their best scorer (Noah Walker). He only had two points.”

Fort Recovery notched 11 straight points again to begin the fourth quarter, including five from the game’s leading scorer, Payton Jutte. After a Green Wave giveaway, he drew contact at the other end while converting a layup and made the subsequent freebie for the three-point play, then scored on a fast break after swiping the ball from a Greenville ball handler.

Jutte finished with 20 points to back up his 30-point effort on Dec. 22, and Knapke finished with 13 points to give the Indians a trio of players with 10 or more points.

“It’s important to have more than two scorers like Payton and Grant out there,” Derek Jutte said. Blayne Tobe and Gavin Thobe had six points apiece off the bench. Thobe did all his damage in the latter part of the fourth quarter.

“The more players we get involved the better,” Jutte continued. “It also gets them more shots. The more you spread it the easier it is to get kick-out threes. It just works out.”

Jordan Dill was the Green Wave’s leading scorer with eight points. Tyler Beyke contributed six points.

Junior varsity

All but three players who saw action hit the scoresheet as Fort Recovery beat Greenville, 49-21.

The Indians (7-1) had a comfortable 16-4 lead after the first quarter before adding two to the margin at halftime, 24-10. A solid defensive effort in the third quarter, which resulted in the Tribe outscoring the Green Wave 11-2, pushed the score to 35-12 in favor of the home team with one quarter to play.

Riley Will and Ian Homan led the Indians with 10 and nine points respectively. Brian Bihn collected six points, Gavin Thobe had five while Russell Gehle, Kenny Jutte and Reagan Martin tallied four points apiece.