Tribe rolls past Tigers in semifinal

Copyright 2019, The Commercial Review

All Rights Reserved

COLDWATER, Ohio — The Indians had a 12-point cushion over the Tigers at halftime.

They buried them in the third, then watched as the reserves put the game away in the fourth.

Fort Recovery High School's boys basketball team outscored Waynesfield-Goshen 23-4 in the third quarter as it demolished the Tigers 70-34 in the Division IV Wapakoneta District sectional semifinal on Tuesday at Coldwater's Palace.

“We were confident coming in,” said FRHS coach Michael Bashore, whose sixth-seeded Indians (11-11) advance to the sectional final at approximately 8 p.m. Friday back at Coldwater against No. 3 seed Minster Wildcats. “We have our eyes on a bigger prize Friday night. We needed to get through this one first.”

Did they ever.

Fort Recovery led Waynesfield-Goshen (2-19) 10-8 midway through the opening quarter before starting to take control.

Grant Knapke scored on a Gavin Thobe assist to begin a stretch of seven consecutive points for the Indians, and six straight in the second helped FRHS to a double-digit lead, 23-10.

The domination carried over into the third quarter as 11 consecutive points to begin the second half turned a 12-point Fort Recovery lead at intermission into a 40-17 advantage.

Blayne Tobe began the run with a bucket and one, and Clay Schmitz, Derek Jutte, Payton Jutte and Knapke each scored.

Waynesfield-Goshen's first bucket of the third came at the 3:05 mark.

Ten more points by the Indians made it 50-19, and the rout was officially on.

“We all kind of found a spark and I think we just out-hustled them on every aspect,” said Schmitz, a Fort Recovery sophomore who led all players with 17 points. “They only scored four.

“I think it came from our effort that we might not have had all year. I think we all played together as team.”

Knapke was second to Schmitz with 14 points. Ian Homan and Tobe had six points apiece as all but two of the 14 Indians to checked in scored at least two points.

Waynesfield-Goshen sophomore Layton Campbell led the Tigers with 13 points.

Schmitz did the most of his damage in the paint, putting back a pair of offensive rebounds in the first quarter and being the beneficiary to assists from his the rest of his squad. He finished 8-of-12 from the field and split a pair of free throws.

“I have to thank all my teammates for getting me in that position and all the passes I had,” he said.

Bashore went to his bench early and often, giving his reserves playing time long before the game was decided.

But in the final period, as the Indians were up by 31, the reserves got all the action.

They didn't let up, either.

Brian Bihn scored the first four points of his career. Clay Pearson scored his only points of the game, a 3-pointer from the right wing to start the frame. Noah Lennartz chipped in three points, Ryne Post added two, Homan nailed the second of his two treys and Regan Martin added a layup as well, finding an opening in the left side of the lane from the arc and putting up a left-handed bucket.

“We tried to play a lot of JV kids tonight to get them some run because we have some JV kids that can shoot a little bit,” Bashore said.

Schmitz, a two-year varsity player, enjoyed getting to see the substitutes get meaningful minutes.

“That makes me so happy because I've played with them my whole life,” he said. “It just brings me chills. Those are the guys I grew up with.

“It's just awesome watching them play too.”

When Fort Recovery and Minster met Jan. 4 at Fort Site Fieldhouse, the Indians got shot out of their own gym.

The Wildcats made 14-of-20 attempts from long range in a 78-47 drubbing. They got handled in the paint too.

“That's going to make us a little hungry,” Bashore said. “That doesn't mean Minster isn't going to play as hard as they did last time … We have our work cut out for us.”