March 9, 2018 at 6:15 a.m.
District daggers
Fort Recovery struggles defending perimeter in district semifinal loss to Coldwater
District daggers
Copyright 2018, The Commercial Review
All Rights Reserved
LIMA, Ohio — Guarding the perimeter has been a challenge for the Indians for most of the season.
The Cavaliers and their motion offense exploited that weakness.
Fort Recovery High School’s boys basketball team gave up nine 3-pointers, allowed a 14-1 run in the second quarter and got beat on the glass before halftime as its season came to a close with a 65-55 loss to the Coldwater Cavaliers in the Division III district semifinal on Thursday at Lima Senior.
“We struggle at that, that is not a secret,” first-year Fort Recovery coach Michael Bashore, whose team ended its year at 15-10, said of the Tribe’s perimeter defense. “That’s something we’ve struggled at all year. We’ve done a nice job of keeping (teams) in the 50s, but it’s been smoke and mirrors because we’re not very good at closing out on the threes.
“Our younger kids run into a lot of screens. You’ll learn from that.”
Coldwater moves to 12-12 on the season and meets top-seeded and third-ranked Ottawa-Glandorf in the district championship at 7 p.m. Saturday. The game was moved back from its scheduled 1:30 p.m. start time because Ottawa-Glandorf’s girls basketball team is playing in the regional final that afternoon.
The Titan boys beat up on Paulding 82-40 in the first semifinal on Thursday.
The Cavaliers, who lost to the Indians 54-51 on Feb. 9 at Fort Site Fieldhouse in Midwest Athletic Conference play, were 9-of-16 from behind the arc. They were able to shake Fort Recovery defenders by crossing court along the baseline to get to the corners and worked off screens at the top of the arc.
“We shoot a lot of threes but we have a lot of kids that can shoot the threes,” Coldwater coach Nick Fisher said. “Some of that is by design and some of that is the kids, in our motion offense, have the green light to put it up.”
Jacob Wenning, who finished with a game-high 22 points — 14 above his season average — had four 3-pointers, including three in the first half.
His first came midway through the opening quarter to give Coldwater an 11-6 advantage, then he drained two on consecutive possession in the second quarter to help erase the Cavaliers’ five-point deficit.
He swished a shot from the left corner on an assist from Mitch Balster, then nailed one on the right wing to put the Cavs out front 24-23 with five minutes before half.
Wenning’s two triples started a 14-1 run for Coldwater that took almost five minutes off the clock.
Fort Recovery, which had successfully executed getting the ball to freshman Clay Schmitz in the post during the first half, didn’t shoot as well during the Cavs’ run as it missed four consecutive 3-pointers and came up empty on six straight possessions.
“We were ready for what they were going to do,” Bashore said. “Early on we didn’t have trouble scoring. We were getting it to other people. I think our shot selection as the game went on, our shot selection wasn’t as good in the second quarter.
“The thing I thought was the biggest key and we talked about it all week, the same thing that hurt us last time was we couldn’t keep them off the boards.”
Fort Recovery got outmanned on the glass in the first half, 19-8, and was beat 28-26 for the game. Cole Frilling led the Cavaliers with 10 rebounds, one shy of Ryan Braun’s game high.
“Not that they didn’t play well enough to win because they did, but I felt we gave them 16 to 20 points just on our stuff,” said Bashore, whose team went into half down 32-26 but fell behind 47-29 late in the third as its offense started to fizzle.
Payton Jutte, the Tribe’s leading scorer at 19.3 points per game, was limited to just five points. All of them came in the first half. It was part of Fisher’s plans to get him out of rhythm.
“We spent a lot of time, this week especially, making sure to not give him the opportunity,” Fisher said. Jutte was 2-of-11 from the field with a 3-pointer, tying him with current FRHS assistant coach Bob Leverette for the school record of 74 made 3-pointers in a season.
Schmitz scored 16 points to lead the Indians, and Grant Knapke joined him in double figures with 15 points.
Thursday’s contest marked the final game for three Fort Recovery seniors, Trevor Vaughn, Cade Wendel and Braun. At one point in the year the Indians were 7-8, then won eight of their final 10 contests.
“What a great group of kids to be at 7-8 and end up 15-10 and end up at a district semifinal,” Bashore said. “That is probably something a lot of people didn’t expect. That’s a credit to our kids and how hard they work. I’m awful proud of them.
“I hate losing and the worst part is tomorrow I don’t have practice to go to. I just enjoy the heck out of these kids.”
All Rights Reserved
LIMA, Ohio — Guarding the perimeter has been a challenge for the Indians for most of the season.
The Cavaliers and their motion offense exploited that weakness.
Fort Recovery High School’s boys basketball team gave up nine 3-pointers, allowed a 14-1 run in the second quarter and got beat on the glass before halftime as its season came to a close with a 65-55 loss to the Coldwater Cavaliers in the Division III district semifinal on Thursday at Lima Senior.
“We struggle at that, that is not a secret,” first-year Fort Recovery coach Michael Bashore, whose team ended its year at 15-10, said of the Tribe’s perimeter defense. “That’s something we’ve struggled at all year. We’ve done a nice job of keeping (teams) in the 50s, but it’s been smoke and mirrors because we’re not very good at closing out on the threes.
“Our younger kids run into a lot of screens. You’ll learn from that.”
Coldwater moves to 12-12 on the season and meets top-seeded and third-ranked Ottawa-Glandorf in the district championship at 7 p.m. Saturday. The game was moved back from its scheduled 1:30 p.m. start time because Ottawa-Glandorf’s girls basketball team is playing in the regional final that afternoon.
The Titan boys beat up on Paulding 82-40 in the first semifinal on Thursday.
The Cavaliers, who lost to the Indians 54-51 on Feb. 9 at Fort Site Fieldhouse in Midwest Athletic Conference play, were 9-of-16 from behind the arc. They were able to shake Fort Recovery defenders by crossing court along the baseline to get to the corners and worked off screens at the top of the arc.
“We shoot a lot of threes but we have a lot of kids that can shoot the threes,” Coldwater coach Nick Fisher said. “Some of that is by design and some of that is the kids, in our motion offense, have the green light to put it up.”
Jacob Wenning, who finished with a game-high 22 points — 14 above his season average — had four 3-pointers, including three in the first half.
His first came midway through the opening quarter to give Coldwater an 11-6 advantage, then he drained two on consecutive possession in the second quarter to help erase the Cavaliers’ five-point deficit.
He swished a shot from the left corner on an assist from Mitch Balster, then nailed one on the right wing to put the Cavs out front 24-23 with five minutes before half.
Wenning’s two triples started a 14-1 run for Coldwater that took almost five minutes off the clock.
Fort Recovery, which had successfully executed getting the ball to freshman Clay Schmitz in the post during the first half, didn’t shoot as well during the Cavs’ run as it missed four consecutive 3-pointers and came up empty on six straight possessions.
“We were ready for what they were going to do,” Bashore said. “Early on we didn’t have trouble scoring. We were getting it to other people. I think our shot selection as the game went on, our shot selection wasn’t as good in the second quarter.
“The thing I thought was the biggest key and we talked about it all week, the same thing that hurt us last time was we couldn’t keep them off the boards.”
Fort Recovery got outmanned on the glass in the first half, 19-8, and was beat 28-26 for the game. Cole Frilling led the Cavaliers with 10 rebounds, one shy of Ryan Braun’s game high.
“Not that they didn’t play well enough to win because they did, but I felt we gave them 16 to 20 points just on our stuff,” said Bashore, whose team went into half down 32-26 but fell behind 47-29 late in the third as its offense started to fizzle.
Payton Jutte, the Tribe’s leading scorer at 19.3 points per game, was limited to just five points. All of them came in the first half. It was part of Fisher’s plans to get him out of rhythm.
“We spent a lot of time, this week especially, making sure to not give him the opportunity,” Fisher said. Jutte was 2-of-11 from the field with a 3-pointer, tying him with current FRHS assistant coach Bob Leverette for the school record of 74 made 3-pointers in a season.
Schmitz scored 16 points to lead the Indians, and Grant Knapke joined him in double figures with 15 points.
Thursday’s contest marked the final game for three Fort Recovery seniors, Trevor Vaughn, Cade Wendel and Braun. At one point in the year the Indians were 7-8, then won eight of their final 10 contests.
“What a great group of kids to be at 7-8 and end up 15-10 and end up at a district semifinal,” Bashore said. “That is probably something a lot of people didn’t expect. That’s a credit to our kids and how hard they work. I’m awful proud of them.
“I hate losing and the worst part is tomorrow I don’t have practice to go to. I just enjoy the heck out of these kids.”
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