Rough ride

FORT RECOVERY — Wins haven’t come easy for the Indians this season and the losses haven’t been particularly close.

Against the Roughriders, the Indians not only had a chance to win, but also had the ball with less than a minute left. The Indians just couldn’t get a shot up.

The St. Marys Memorial Roughriders forced two turnovers in the final 36 seconds to sneak away with a 34-31 victory over the Fort Recovery High School girls basketball team on Tuesday.

“That’s a tough one to lose coming down to the wire, especially knowing how much the girls care about it,” FRHS coach Tyler Deitsch said. “They really want to win now that they know they can and have gotten a taste of it, so any loss stings a little bit more now.”

The Indians (5-2) started the fourth quarter on a hot streak. Kennedy Muhlenkamp put up two baskets in the first two minutes to make it a one-possession game.

With 2 minutes, 9 seconds remaining, Makenna Huelskamp drove the baseline to dish the ball to Saige Leuthold to pull Fort Recovery within one. A free throw by Muhlenkamp a minute later tied the game up, making it seven unanswered points.

With the game tied and 36 second left, Cali Wendel forced a turnover to give Fort Recovery the ball.

A loose-ball foul on Karlie Niekamp after an errant pass ended up in the hands of Reagan Allemeier allowed the Roughriders (5-2) to score their first points of the quarter, hitting 1-of-2 foul shots.

On the other end, Deitsch called a timeout with 11.4 seconds to try and draw up a play.

A ball tipped out of bounds, a foul and two more timeouts left the Indians with a sideline out-of-bounds opportunity with 4.2 seconds left.

After Fort Recovery was denied its designed play, the ball was lobbed into Saige Leuthold, who had the hot hand for the Indians all game. She took a drop step and a power dribble, which allowed Sophia Menker of the Roughriders to come from behind and tie Leuthold up and turn the possession over without getting a shot off.

Menker then iced the game away by hitting a pair of free throws while Wendel’s three-quarter court prayer came up short.

“The more times we are in these types of scenarios is when we will be able to handle it,” Deitsch said. “Getting in these types of games with good teams is huge. We’ve just got to learn and it will definitely be something we will be able to finish next time.”

While Leuthold wasn’t able to get a shot off at the end, she played her best game of the season.

Leuthold took advantage of having a height advantage against Memorial — the tallest Roughrider that played was five foot, nine inches — by setting up in the paint and attacking the offensive glass which resulted in two early baskets.

The senior had nearly half of Fort Recovery’s first half points, owning nine of the 19 points.

She finished with 11 while going 5-for-6 from the floor and pulled down seven rebounds.

“That was my goal to be aggressive, because I have been falling behind these last couple of games,” Leuthold said. “It feels great to hit my shots that don’t usually fall. I just feel proud of myself.”

While Leuthold supplied most of the offense early, Muhlenkamp performed well in the second half. She finished with 11 points, five of which came in the fourth quarter, and a game-high eight rebounds.

Kennedy Muhlenkamp (20) goes up for a layup late in the Indians’ 34-31 loss to St. Marys Memorial on Tuesday. Muhlenkamp scored seven points in the second half to keep Fort Recovery in the game. (The Commercial Review/Andrew Balko)

 

The Indians dominated the paint, outscoring the Roughriders 24-10. They also forced 18 turnovers.

Memorial’s ticket to victory was the 3-point line. While FRHS only hit one triple, Memorial went 6-for-14 (42.9%) from deep to make up for its lack of height.

Reese Rable led the way, shooting 4-for-8 from 3-point range herself and added a layup as well.

“We need her offense,” Memorial coach Scott Jordan said. “She’s our leading scorer. … When she’s putting the ball in the basket, good things are going to happen for us. She sets the tone for us offensively.

“It was big because we were giving them a lot of free possessions on offensive rebounds. We shoot a lot of threes. That’s part of our style and they were dropping tonight.”

Jordan noted how impressed he was with how Fort Recovery battled despite not having a lot of depth.

The Indians only used two substitutes in the entire game, with both Sophia Guggenbiller and Cameron Muhlenkamp playing in the third quarter. Huelskamp, Wendel, Muhlenkamp, Niekamp and Leuthold played the entirety of the first, second and third quarters without taking a break.

“Our girls fight hard and they play hard from the tip all the way to the end,” Deitsch said. “We had five total girls who played in the first half, so we knew in the second half there could be some tired wheels on the car. They played hard all the way through and these guys will never give up, so that’s great to see.”

Fort Recovery’s next game isn’t until after the holiday break, when they will host Marion Local for a non-conference doubleheader with the boys team.

Junior varsity

The Fort Recovery junior varsity team couldn’t slow down St. Marys Memorial’s offense in a 35-23 loss on Tuesday.

The Roughriders scored 10 points in the first, third and fourth quarters, while tying the Indians for five apiece in the second.

Regan Hittle, Kendal Davis and Logan Henschen all scored seven points to lead Memorial. All of the Roughriders’ scoring was spread out, with the most coming from any individual in a quarter ws five from Hittle in the third.

Bridget Homan had the best performance for Fort Recovery. She dropped 10 points on two first-quarter threes and a fourth-quarter basket and two free throws.