Rough roller coaster

FORT RECOVERY — The Indians turned the ball over and allowed SHHS to rain in threes in the first quarter.

The Tribe dominated the paint on both ends of the floor in the second quarter to work its way back into the game.

The Indians offense started to stall in the third quarter as SHHS ramped up its defense to make all the difference in the game.

St. Henry ended on top of the roller coaster as the Fort Recovery High School boys basketball team came up short 63-53 in the Ohio 119 Classic on Monday.

The game constantly seesawed between St. Henry (3-5) jumping out to a double-digit lead and the Indians (3-5) cutting it to a two-possession game or better.

“Our scouting report was they were all the same type of kid,” said FRHS coach Bob Leverette. “They can all drive and they can all shoot it, so be out there on the catch. We didn’t get out early and they hit some threes on us. We had that mountain to climb and we battled back to be down one at halftime.

“Then the third quarter it was the same thing. They got up 10, we battled back and then we got down 10 and battled back, so that was kind of the story of the night.”

The first major swing lasted the first four minutes of the game. SHHS hit five 3-point shots and forced multiple Indian turnovers — Fort Recovery coughed the ball up 10 times in the quarter — to build a 21-6 advantage.

The Indians started to turn things around late in the opening period to cut the deficit to 10. They scored the final four points of the period on free throws by Grant Fortkamp and a Gavin Evers putback.

FRHS then put up the first nine points of the second period on a Colson Post triple, a drop step by Breaker Jutte, and free throws from Briggs Overman and Fortkamp to pull within one of St. Henry.

Landon Schwartz scored the first St. Henry basket of the quarter on a drive with 1 minute, 52 seconds, remaining. Brayden Heath followed with a transition basket, but Overman gave the Indians four more points to keep it a 1-point game at the intermission.

Overman often had the answer for the Tribe, scoring a game-high 21 points on 7-of-12 (58.3%) shooting.

“It was great because he kind of struggled against Marion (Local) with the physicality,” said Leverette. “It was good to see him get to the rim and finish a little bit and he hit that big three down the stretch.”

St. Henry’s defense slowed down Overman in the third quarter, only allowing him a trip to the charity stripe, in which he split a pair of foul shots. With only one point coming from Overman, the Indians finished the third with nine points on three made shots and two three free throws.

St. Henry took advantage of the slow quarter by putting up 18 points to grab another 10-point lead.

“It was our defense,” said SHHS coach Eric Rosenbeck. “We’ve been able to turn over a lot of quality teams around 20 (times). The big thing is just working to keep our guy in front in the half court. It’s anticipation, hustle and everything we want our program to stand for.”

FRHS cut the deficit to just five points with 3:39 left in the game, but three points from Jack Huelsman — St. Henry’s offensive leader with 16 — a fastbreak generated by a Carson Harrod steal and five free throws to push the game back to 10 points prior to the final buzzer.

The Tribe shot significantly better from the charity stripe, knocking down 17-of-22 (77.3%) free throws, while SHHS finished 14-of-27 (51.9%). St. Henry made up for the poor foul shooting with 15 offensive rebounds, seven more than the Indians, and by forcing 20 turnovers while only committing 12.