D sparks Recovery

FORT RECOVERY — It took the Indians almost half of the opening period to hit their first field goal. Offense was never easy in the first half.

But their defense sparked some scoring early in the second half.

Baskets off of turnovers were key in a 23-point third quarter for the Fort Recovery High School boys basketball team Saturday, and size inside helped seal a 48-39 victory over the Arcanum Trojans.

“Sometimes we just get stagnant and we have to lean on our defense to create some offense,” said FRHS coach Jim Melton, who coached at Arcanum last season. “But I’m proud of the boys for fighting back.”

The Indians (10-3) trailed by one at halftime and gave up a hoop just eight seconds into the third quarter. But some easy offense, keyed by Derek Jutte, turned their night around.

After Clay Schmitz pulled Fort Recovery back within one, Jutte came up with a steal that led to a layup and three-point play. The home team would never trail again.

Another Jutte layup off of a steal was part of a six-point spurt, and the Tribe scored the final seven points of the third quarter to open up a 37-28 lead.

“They’re a good team and they made a run on us,” said Arcanum coach Roger McEldowney. “We probably could have guarded them a little better. I think the high ball screen pick-and-roll hurt us a little bit. But they’ve got good players. We knew they were going to make a run.

“But we did get back in to it. We just needed to execute a little bit better … down the stretch.”

The Trojans (7-7) roared back with an eight-point run of their own to pull even, only to have the Tribe turn to their big man. Five straight points, including a three-point play, from the 6-foot, 5-inch Brian Bihn extended Fort Recovery’s advantage again, and four free throws in the final minute put the game away.

“We knew that they were going to do that,” said McEldowney. “We knew we had to get down and get him on the bounce, and we didn’t get there a couple times and he finished. We would much rather make them shoot a three over the top, but we just didn’t make that happen consistently enough.”

After shooting just 3-of-13 and missing all of their seven 3-point attempts in the first half — free throws kept them in the game — the Indians shot 13-of-16 (81 percent) after the intermission.

Bihn’s 11 points, five of which came from the foul line, set the pace for the Tribe. He also made all of his three field-goal attempts.

Jutte was nearly as efficient. He hit his first four field-goal attempts of the game — all in the third quarter — as he and Schmitz followed Bihn with nine points apiece.

Melton, who expressed his displeasure at several illegal screen and block/charge calls in the second half, said he was pleased with the way his team handled difficult situations.

“We faced several adverse situations this evening,” said Melton. “All the credit goes to the boys. They fought hard and they deserved it.”

The team’s 10th win of the season came despite a slow start as it was down 6-1 early. Its first field goal came from Bihn at the 4:28 mark of the first quarter, and it faced a 15-14 deficit at the half.

Arcanum got 16 points from Carter Gray, who keyed the early fourth-quarter run.



Junior varsity

Fort Recovery dominated the first quarter on the way to a 56-22 victory over the Trojans.

The Indians led 26-6 after the opening period and then limited Arcanum to two second-quarter points. The lead expanded to 37 points after three quarters.

Daniel Patch scored nine points in the first quarter en-route to a game-high 18 for the Tribe. Owen Jutte was right behind him with 17 points.