Tribe D trounces Polar Bears

FORT RECOVERY — The Indians forced the Polar Bears into a turnover on their first defensive position.

It was a sign of things to come.

Fort Recovery High School’s girls basketball team forced 27 turnovers and had a balanced attack offensively on its way to a 63-26 thrashing of the Hardin Northern Polar Bears in the Division IV Wapakoneta District sectional semifinal on Thursday at Fort Site Fieldhouse.

“I just think the biggest thing to take away from (the defense) was that we executed,” said FRHS coach Holly Gann. “We knew coming in that ball pressure and pressure in general was going to cause them fits.

“But the neat thing about that, it’s easy when it’s one-on-one, that man-to-man defense. But then we went into a zone and got more turnovers. So I think it’s really nice when we come in with a solid plan, the girls executed exactly what we wanted and we were able to get the W, which at this point in the game that’s what it’s all about.”

Fort Recovery (15-6), which is the district’s fourth seed, will host Midwest Athletic Conference rival and fifth-ranked New Bremen Cardinals for the sectional final at 7 p.m. Saturday. The Cardinals defeated Waynesfield-Goshen 67-32 in their respective semifinal.

Although it turned the ball over on its first possession, Hardin Northern (6-13) actually had a 6-4 lead thanks to 3-pointers from Bella Wilson and Maddie Grappy.

That’s when things began to unravel for the Polar Bars. They committed seven turnovers in the first quarter while trailing 18-8 at the break. Then the Indians came up with a dozen turnovers — 11 of them consecutively — in the second quarter.

The Tribe managed just eight points off of those giveaways and led 30-13 before taking a 34-17 lead into halftime.

Fort Recovery had seven players with at least two points at intermission, including 10 from Alli Vaughn and eight from Kierra Wendel. Whitley Rammel had six points in spite of the fact she picked up two first-quarter fouls on the same possession.

After the Indians switched to their zone, the Polar Bears committed six consecutive turnovers in the third quarter. The FRHS offense was more potent this time, scoring 18 straight points as their 36-19 advantage ballooned into a 54-19 lead.

Paige Fortkamp and Rammel had six points each in the run, while Mara Pearson chipped in four and Vaughn added two.

“I thought we played a lot of unselfish basketball,” Gann said. “We were willing to constantly keep making that extra pass. Ball movement was there, we were cutting, we were very confident … Everybody just got a turn and we were very unselfish in that manner.

“We played as a team, we won as a team and defensively that won the game.”

Rammel had a game-high 14 points, and Vaughn finished with 12 points. Fortkamp added 11 points to go with her game-high eight rebounds, and Pearson joined them in double figures with 10 points.

Katie Good and Grappy led Hardin Northern with seven points each.

Up next for the Tribe are the Cardinals, who the Indians held off for a 44-40 victory when they met back on Dec. 3. Fort Recovery had a double-digit lead before New Bremen put up a rally on its home court.

“I think when we get that lead we’re just going to have to hold that lead, stay composed and execute down the stretch,” Gann said. “As always, ball pressure defense is going to be it for us. We need to be able to contain the people we know we need to contain.”