Six missed, six made

FORT RECOVERY — With the Starfires trailing by only two possessions and 3 minutes and 36 seconds left, the game was far from over for the Indians.

Six missed free throws didn’t help the Tribe’s cause either, as a Nolan Colpaert field goal narrowed its lead to just four points.

The following six foul shots found the bottom of the net to secure the Indians' win.

Fort Recovery High School’s boys basketball team followed six missed free throws with six makes to grind out a 52-42 victory over the South Adams Starfires on Friday.

“It’s a gritty win … we had a battle with them last year the same way,” said FRHS coach Bob Leverette, noting the game in which it won at the buzzer in 2023 on a Briggs Overman pull up. “They play the 2-3 zone, and control the pace. It was hard for us to push it when we did get a rebound. …

“We did a pretty good job down the stretch. We missed six free throws in a row, but then we made six in a row to finish it out. We (were) mentally tough and finished.”

The Indians (3-3) came into the fourth quarter with a 40-36 advantage, which quickly shrunk on a jump shot by Tytus Lehman. FRHS quickly got to the charity stripe, knocking down a pair of shots by Grant Fortkamp to regain the 4-point lead.

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Fort Recovery boys basketball vs. South Adams (12/27/2024)

Lehman — the game’s top scorer with 16 points — got another bucket off of a ball screen before Fort Recovery hit its only field goal of the period off of a high-low action between Brody Barga and Breaker Jutte.

Both South Adams (1-5) and the Tribe missed a pair of shots at the foul line to hold the score at 44-40. Colson Post made it to the foul line at the 3:36 mark to extend the Indians’ lead to six points.

That’s when Fort Recovery’s free-throw shooting woes began as Jutte missed a pair 14 seconds later. A hoop by Colpaert, assisted by Derek McKean on a baseline-out-of-bounds play, brought the Starfires back within two possessions.

The Tribe missed four more free throws from Jutte and Barga, but the latter broke the string of misses after getting hacked off the ball with 1:10 remaining in the game. Briggs Overman iced the game away as two more free throws pushed the lead to three possessions with less than a minute left. Gavin Evers followed with his own pair of makes to reach the final.

“You’ve just gotta clear your head and don’t think about anything while you’re on the line and knock them down,” Overman said. The senior led FRHS with 15 points, most of which came in the first quarter, including a transition dunk off of a hustle play to track down a loose ball in the SAHS back court. “Plays like that just makes the team more energized to see a big play happen. There’s nothing you can do but get hype about it.”

The Indians’ biggest lead of 10 points came early in the second quarter after going on a 6-1 run.

South Adams responded with a 10-2 run to finish off the first half and stay in the game. McKean — who finished with 11 — scored five of the 10 points, while Jutte held Lehman scoreless.

“I think we were getting to the basket and we were attacking,” said first-year SAHS coach Kyle Roe. “We have a drill called DKS, drive, kick, swing, and I think we were really driving it, kicking it and swinging it and we got some open looks.

“I think if we would have hit some shots in the second half, it would have been a much different game. We struggled from three.”

Jutte held Lehman in check through after getting switched onto him midway through the first quarter. The freshman only allowed Lehman to score four times in the second half, including off a press break and the early fourth-quarter bucket, each time Jutte switched off of the SAHS senior due to a ball screen.

Fort Recovery got 13 points out of Jutte as well, 10 of which came off of passes from Barga, who led all players with five assists and nine rebounds. Three more Indians scored seven or more points to support Overman and Jutte.

FRHS will jump directly into the Ohio 119 Classic today against Marion Local before getting one day of rest and then hosting St. Henry.

“We told them, there are going to be some grinders the rest of the year,” Leverette said. “So enjoy it until tomorrow at 11:30, until our shoot around. Then we’ve got Marion Local.”