Defense dominates 'Dogs

FORT RECOVERY — The Indians have a chance at history Thursday.

But first they had to get through the Bulldogs.

After little resistance in the first quarter, the Tribe coasted the rest of the way and began preparing for an upcoming showdown.

Fort Recovery High School’s girls basketball team scored 16 straight points in the first quarter and forced 27 turnovers in cruising past the Celina Bulldogs 54-27 Tuesday at Fort Site Fieldhouse, one game before having a chance to clinch at least a share of a conference championship for the first time in almost three decades.

“We really talked about tightening up our defense a little bit, getting into passing lanes (and) trying to take a risk on some things,” said first-year FRHS coach Holly Gann, whose Tribe squad improved to 16-5 and hosts Midwest Athletic Conference rival New Bremen on Thursday. “I feel like we’re sagging on some things with some of our defense so I was like ‘Hey, you’ve got to take a risk. Put yourself in a position to fail. Unfortunately, you do have to fail sometimes in order to get better.’”

Celina (4-17) made the first basket of the game, but the Fort Recovery defense was just getting in its groove.

Kierra Wendel came up with a steal and a fast-break bucket to put the Indians on the board. Following a pair of Val Muhlenkamp free throws, Alli Vaughn got a steal and two quick points before another steal and basket from Wendel.

During the Tribe’s 16-0 run, the Bulldogs missed seven consecutive shots and committed 10 turnovers.

Fort Recovery, which led 18-5 at the end of the first quarter, forced Celina into five turnovers during the second quarter and nine in the third quarter.

Vaughn led the Indians with 13 points, 11 of which came during the first half. Wendel scored six of her 10 points in the opening quarter, and Muhlenkamp notched all six of her points before intermission as the Indians shot 72.2 percent (13-of-18) from the field in the first 16 minutes.

Celina, meanwhile, was 33.3 percent in the first half and finished the night at 25.7 percent (9-of-25) from the floor.

Fort Recovery shot at a 52.9 percent clip in the second half to end the night 64.7 percent (22-of-35), but Gann was not unhappy with the dip in accuracy.

“Obviously we took our press off at some point, so I just think the pace of the game, we’re used to playing a little faster,” she said. “That press keeps us on or toes and honest.

“I think that pace is really huge. We controlled the pace — tempo — the whole way, which is a pretty positive thing. When we wanted to pick it back up we picked it back up.

“As a coach, controlling the game tempo is probably really important for a game like this especially.”

Taylor Klingshirn was Celina’s leading scorer with 10 points, including both of her team’s 3-pointers.

Thursday’s game against MAC rival New Bremen has implications for the conference championship. A Fort Recovery victory guarantees the Indians at least a share of the title, which would be the program’s first since winning three in a row — including two state titles — from 1989 to ’91.

“We know that Thursday we’re going to have to play and we needed to treat the second half of this game of us focusing on some things we have to work on as an opportunity to get better,” Gann said. “We came out, I thought those things we tried to narrow in on, we did a lot better today.

“We obviously got the win and that’s very important. We have one more game to go.”



Junior varsity

Faith Grube nearly outscored Celina by herself as Fort Recovery topped the Bulldogs 14-8 in two quarters of play.

The Indians (8-11) had a 7-4 edge at the end of the first quarter and both teams doubled their points at the end of the contest.

Grube finished with seven points, and Grace Guggenbiller tossed in four points. Alexis Wendel added three points.