First half hampers Fort in semifinal

WAPAKONETA, Ohio — The Tribe defense is usually giving other teams fits.

Thursday, the Wildcats were not intimidated by the pressure. And their tenacity while the Indians had the ball was a little too suffocating at times.

Fort Recovery High School’s girls basketball team committed 13 first-half turnovers and, when its was able to keep the ball, struggled to make shots in a 50-32 loss to Midwest Athletic Conference rival Minster on Thursday in the Division IV district semifinal at Wapakoneta.

“Obviously, Minster is good,” said FRHS coach Holly Gann, whose team ends the year 16-7. “The girls played hard. I don’t think any coach can be disappointed when the girls go out and do what you want … (The girls) just gave it their all tonight and unfortunately it didn’t fall in our favor.

“We had opportunities. We had our chances. They were able to multiply on them and we just didn’t.”

Minster, which is ranked fourth in the state and is the district’s top seed, advance to the regional championship game at 7:30 p.m. Saturday against New Knoxville. The Rangers defeated Marion Local 32-27 in the second All-MAC semifinal later Thursday night.

“I’m happy to be coming back on Saturday,” said Minster coach Mike Wiss, whose team will play New Knoxville in the district final for the third straight season.

Fort Recovery (16-7), which fell to Minster 58-27 during the regular season and has lost to the Wildcats in district play three out of the last four seasons, struggled early offensively as it turned the ball over on four of its first eight possessions.

The Indians got within two, 9-7, in the final two minutes, but another turnover and a missed 3-pointer aided in Minster (21-1) ending on a 5-0 run.

During the second quarter, Kierra Wendel made a jumper from the left elbow to make it 17-11 nearly two minutes in. But the Wildcat defense flexed its muscles again, all the while hitting shots at the other end.

Ella Mescher drained a 3-pointer from the left wing, then Ivy Wolf followed with a step-back triple to make it 23-11. Mason Pohl added two points before Mescher and Wolf both got easy baskets on Tribe turnovers. After Wendel’s basket, the Indians committed six turnovers and the Wildcats ended the half on a 14-2 run.

“We won a bunch of deflections,” Wiss said. “Through the first quarter and a half, we had seven defensive deflections. In the last four minutes, we had 12. Those defensive deflections led to some easy ones that really gave us a cushion at halftime.”

Fort Recovery, which trailed 31-13 and shot just 5-of-13 (38.5%) at intermission, was able to get a little bit of offense going in the third quarter as it outscored Minster 10-7. Wendel made a 3-pointer from the left wing, while Brenna Homan, Ali Vaughn and Mara Pearson had two points each.

Down 15 after three quarters, the Indians never managed to get closer than a baker’s dozen during the fourth and finished the night with 21 turnovers.

“You have to be pretty mentally tough to continue to play in a game when they don’t stop,” Gann said. “(Minster) isn’t a team that’s going to stop. This isn’t a team that’s going to pull their starters out. That just wears on you.

“Early we were running them hard (and) trying to get them out for breaks. By the end of the game, playing this pace and asking the girls to play really aggressive, we knew we were eventually going to run out of steam. I think the fourth quarter we just looked really tired.”

Wendel, Vaughn and Pearson led the Indians, who finished 12-for-31 (38.7%) from the field, with seven points apiece.

Wolf, the three-time MAC player of the year and future Miami (Ohio) RedHawk, had a game-high 18 points. Mescher contributed 14 points for Minster.