Seniors step up for Tribe

FORT RECOVERY — Derek Jutte scored five consecutive points to start the fourth quarter for the Indians.

Then he went down with a head injury midway through the fourth quarter, wreaking havoc to an already depleted Tribe roster that was without another senior starter.

Three other seniors stepped up to weather the storm.

Regan Martin, Gavin Thobe and Brian Bihn all had four points in the final four minutes, helping the Fort Recovery High School boys basketball team fend off a pesky Parkway Panther squad for a 51-43 victory on senior night Friday at Fort Site Fieldhouse.

“We have to be better from the free-throw line and rebounding, but hey, you know what, we found a way to win so that’s really what matters,” said FRHS coach Jim Melton, whose team was without senior swingman Clay Schmitz, who injured his left shoulder Dec. 5 at Monroe Central. “It felt like a playoff game to me. It was a game of up-and-down, and we had to fight through some adversity there.

“Kudos to our guys. They found a way to pull it out.”

Parkway coach Doug Hughes, whose wife is Fort Recovery’s girls basketball all-time leading scorer Lynn Bihn, said the game lived up to the average conference contest.

“It was a typical Friday night in the (Midwest Athletic Conference),” he said. “We had to bring a lot of toughness over here. I thought our kids did. We hung tough. It was a battle back and forth, and then three, maybe four minutes to go in the fourth quarter it kind of got away from us a little bit.

“Both teams laid it all on the line and it was a great MAC contest.”

Parkway (1-2, 1-1 MAC), which advanced to the regional final last year before the tournament was canceled because of the coronavirus pandemic, had a 34-33 lead over Fort Recovery (3-2, 2-0 MAC) at the end of the third quarter after Caden Slusher swished a deep 3-pointer just before time expired.

But Jutte put the Indians on top by driving the left side of the lane for a layup and got fouled. He made the ensuing free throw to make it 36-34.

Following a Panther miss, Jutte grabbed the rebound and went coast-to-coast for another bucket and a four-point lead.

At the 4:02 mark of the final period, Jutte slammed his head onto the court while diving after a rebound. He went into the locker room and did not return.

The Indians were about to be in trouble.

But after Parkway closed the gap to one point on Dylan Hughes’ fifth and final 3-pointer of the night, Martin came up with a pair of free throws and then after a steal had a fast-break basket for a 42-37 FRHS advantage with 2:18 to play.

Bihn scored three points — a back-door layup on a Dillan Evers pass and splitting a pair of free throws — then Thobe made two bonus free throws to give the Indians a 48-40 lead with 24.6 seconds remaining.

“When a team loses their floor general, their leader … that’s why I’m really proud of the guys,” said Melton, whose team went into halftime ahead 24-18 after being tied 8-8 at the end of the first quarter. “They stepped up … We’re like the walking wounded right now with Clay out. We’re finding a way.

“I’m just really proud of them for fighting. Fighting, scratching and clawing; that’s exactly what I just told them.”

Jutte exited the game with 13 points, which at the time was the team high until Bihn’s four points in his absence pulled him even with his classmate. Martin contributed 11 points, and Thobe’s fourth-quarter points were his only ones of the night.

“Regan was phenomenal,” said Melton, whose team hosts Ansonia tonight. “For some reason he’s relishing this role of coming off the bench and being that spark plug guy.

“Listen, Regan Martin’s defense has never been an issue. He knows how to play some defense. He handled the ball, drove to the rim (and) finished.”

Hughes lit up the scoreboard for Parkway, going 11-of-25 from the field, including a 5-for-12 clip from the arc, for a game-high 29 points. No other Panther had more than seven points.

“He’s a nice player, but I don’t want to make it out to be any more than that,” Melton said. “We need to do a better job. We’ve done a better job on our opponent’s top player. We’ll watch that film and get better because we’re going to play guys just as good or if not better than Dylan.”



Junior varsity

Fort Recovery nearly squandered a 12-point halftime lead but hung on to hold the Fort with a 34-33 victory.

The Indians (2-3) had a 13-2 advantage at the end of the first quarter and pushed the advantage to 20-8 at intermission. The Panthers (1-2) used a 12-2 margin in the third quarter, and continued to outscore Fort Recovery but the home team held on.

Rex Leverette scored 10 points to lead Fort Recovery, which also got seven points from Landon Post. Caleb Evers added six points and Ross Pearson tossed in five points.