Fort Recovery advances

Copyright 2018, The Commercial Review

All Rights Reserved

ELIDA, Ohio — The Indians saw their 19-point lead shrink to just six in a span of three minutes.

A 10-point run put the advantage back to double digits.

And as the Eagles continued to chip away at the deficit, the Indians kept it just out of reach.

Despite not shooting particularly well from the foul line, the Fort Recovery High School boys basketball team never let its fourth-quarter lead slip to fewer than nine points as it defeated the Liberty-Benton Eagles in the Division III Lima District sectional semifinal Tuesday at Elida Fieldhouse.

“I can’t say enough, from start to finish we played really well,” said first-year FRHS coach Michael Bashore, whose fifth-seeded Tribe squad advances to the sectional final at 6 p.m. Friday against No. 3 seed Van Buren Golden Knights back at Elida. Van Buren is coached by former FRHS standout Tyler Niekamp.

“I’m awful proud of the kids,” Bashore added. ‘We’re excited but we’re not done yet.”

Liberty-Benton (6-20), which was the No. 10 seed, used a 10-point run that spanned the final two minutes of the third quarter and the first minute of the fourth slice into its deficit. Austin May, who led the Eagles with 19 points, kicked the run by twice splitting a pair of free throws, then Mehkei Jenkins followed with a basket. Then on a scramble play in the LBHS offensive end of the court, May got the ball at the left wing and drained a 3-pointer at the buzzer.

Five straight points to start the fourth quarter for the Eagles made it 48-42.

“I thought more of it might have been when we were rebounding we were in such a hurry to get rid of the ball instead of being a little more patient,” Bashore said.

But Fort Recovery (14-9) had a 10-0 run of its own — Ryan Braun assisted on 3-pointers by Grant Knapke and Payton Jutte while adding a basket after a pair of Jutte free throws — to put the lead back up to 18 with 5:22 to play.

The Indians held on despite shooting just 10-of-18 from the foul line down the stretch as the Eagles started fouling at the 4:35 mark of the period.

“To be honest we haven’t been in a lot of situations where we’ve been up 18 and had to hold on to something like that,” Bashore said.

On three occasions in the final four minutes the Eagles got the deficit to nine points but weren’t able to get any closer.

Fort Recovery was sent to the foul line 30 times and made just 18 of them (60 percent). Liberty-Benton, meanwhile, converted on 17 of its 27 attempts (62.9 percent) as the teams combined for 40 fouls and 57 charity tosses.

Jutte, who had just 16 points combined over his last two games, exploded for 28 points on 9-of-13 shooting, including a trio of 3-pointers.

“It’s really nice finally getting in the scoring column again,” he said. “It’s been rough the past couple (games). It just helps when guys come up.”

Jutte was joined by three other players who reached double figures, including 14 off the bench from Knapke, who also made three shots from behind the arc. Braun finished with a dozen points and Clay Schmitz chipped in 11.

Braun and Jutte shared the team-high of seven rebounds, but Braun’s performance — he had nine points in the first half — came as a welcomed surprise to both his coach and Jutte. Braun injured his shooting hand during an activity for Ag Olympics during Fort Recovery’s National FFA Week festivities Friday. He missed that night’s game against New Knoxville and his effectiveness against the Eagles was uncertain.

“We didn’t know what we were going to get out of him and we got a lot out of him early on,” Bashore said.

Jutte added, “For him to come out and play the way he did it’s exceptional. It’s good for us.”

To complement May, fellow Liberty-Benton senior Will Poling contributed 18 points and did most of his damage in the first half. He had a pair of long-range shots, a 2-point field goal in each of the first two quarters and made all three of his free-throw attempts after getting fouled on a 3-point try.