Indians' strong defense stifles Tigers

FORT RECOVERY — The Tigers managed just 11 shots in the first half.

At the other end, the Indians had more than twice as many attempts at the basket.

Thing is, the Tribe made almost half of them. The Tigers? Just two.

Fort Recovery High School’s girls basketball team used its strong defense to stifle the Versailles Tigers on Thursday as it cruised to a 60-22 victory in the Midwest Athletic Conference opener for both teams.

“Defensive intensity is key so we were just working on trying to apply more of that ball pressure,” said FRHS coach Holly Gann, whose defending MAC champion squad avenged the only loss it suffered in conference play last year. “They were uncomfortable. We weren’t letting them run plays early. We took them out of their motion which is obviously one of our keys to success for us.”

The first Tiger field goal came with 22 seconds left in the opening quarter. By then Fort Recovery (2-1, 1-0 MAC) was out front 11-5. The Indians scored 13 straight points to start the second, including two 3-pointers and a Paige Fortkamp layup off an inbound pass. 

An offensive rebound put-back from Whitley Rammel capped the run to make it 24-5 Indians with less than four minutes to play in half.

Hannah Dirksen made a pair of free throws — Versailles’ first points of the second quarter — to temporarily halt the Tribe. It wasn’t until the final minute before halftime that the Tigers made a basket that wasn’t a free throw.

Versailles went into intermission shooting just 15.4% — it ended the game 6-for-30 for a 20% clip — all the while being out-rebounded 17-8. Nine of the Tribe’s boards in the first 16 minutes came on the offensive glass.

“Obviously we lost (Val Muhlenkamp to graduation),” Gann said. “She was contributing six-to-10 rebounds a game. Those are shoes that need to be filled.

“We talk about rebounding being a job. It all comes from inside. It’s a heart job. You want it, go get it. So we worked on that. Clearly it shows off.”

Fort Recovery, which led 27-17 at half and 40-16 after three quarters, had a 39-18 edge in rebounding for the game.

Tribe senior Alli Vaughn led all players with 10 rebounds and she matched Rammel for the game-high of 15 points. Fortkamp, who was 3-of-6 from beyond the arc, joined them in double figures with 11 points.

But it was Fort Recovery’s defense that came to the forefront in the home opener for the Indians.

“Obviously none of their shots were easy,” Gann said. “They had to work really hard for that. I think that’s the type of defensive intensity we want to have moving into the future for us.”

Kaylee Braun was the leading scorer for Versailles. She finished with eight points, half of which came from the free-throw line. Abby Stammen contributed five points, and five other Tigers had two or fewer points.

Junior varsity

For two quarters, Fort Recovery hung with Versailles. The Tigers started to pull away and the Indians were crippled by turnovers in a 30-19 loss.

Fort Recovery (1-2) trailed 9-8 at the end of the first quarter and went into the break tied at 11. But Versailles created a bit of separation in the third quarter by outscoring the Indians 11-6 and points were hard to come by for the home team in the final period.

Mara Pearson scored eight points to lead the Indians. Alexis Wendel chipped in five points, while Cali Wendel, Elizabeth Alig and Kensey Gaerke had two points each.

Cassie Leach of Versailles led all players with nine points.