Indians hang on for win

NEW BREMEN, Ohio — The defending champions nearly got upended.

They held off a late flurry to get another conference win.

Fort Recovery High School’s girls basketball withstood a fourth-quarter surge by the New Bremen Cardinals for a 44-40 Midwest Athletic Conference victory Thursday.

The Indians (3-1, 2-0 MAC), who won the 2019-20 conference title, had an 11-point lead at halftime balloon into a 38-24 advantage after the third quarter. But the Cardinals (0-1, 0-1 MAC) scored the first 11 points of the fourth quarter to pull within three. The Cardinal defense kept the Tribe to just six points in the final quarter.

Despite the effort, the Cardinals were not able to take the lead from FRHS.

Seniors Alli Vaughn and Paige Fortkamp both had 13 points each to lead the Indians. Vaughn made half of her eight free throws. Fort Recovery also got seven points from Kierra Wendel and six from Whitley Rammel.

New Bremen’s Kaylee Freund scored eight of her game-high 20 points in the fourth quarter. Elli Roetgerman chipped in a dozen points, including a 4-for-6 effort from the free-throw line.