Tribe girls fall to Versailles

VERSAILLES, Ohio — The Indians have been prone to offensive struggles this season.

Those struggles reared their ugly head as the Indians jumped back into Midwest Athletic Conference play.

Fort Recovery High School’s girls basketball team struggled to score in the second and fourth quarters as the Versailles Tigers took advantage to take down the Indians 40-28 on Thursday.

The Indians (2-8, 1- 2 MAC) hung around with the Tigers (5-4, 3-1 MAC) early in the game.

Cali Wendel hit a three and a 2-pointer while Karlie Niekamp and Makenna Huelskamp added buckets to finish the first quarter with nine points. Versailles had five baskets – two from Taylor Wagner and Allison Schwartz – to control a 10-9 lead after the first period.

Fort Recovery went cold in the second quarter.

Four hoops that produced nine points gave the Tigers some separation as FRHS only scored a Sage Leuthold 3-pointer. The Indians trailed 19-12 at the half.

The Indians won the third quarter by a score of 10-8. Leuthold was the top scorer of the quarter with a pair of buckets, including a 3-point play. Niekamp was right behind with four points, while Wendel cleaned up the final point on a free throw.

Fort Recovery didn’t have enough left in the tank as Versailles doubled up its score winning the period 13-6. Wagner nailed two baskets and two free throws to match FRHS with six points. She finished with a game-high 14.

A final 3-point shot by Niekamp made her the Indians’ leading scorer with nine points. Leuthold followed with eight while Wendel and Huelskamp added six and four respectively.

The Indians will get another shot to pick up their second conference win on Jan. 11 against St. John’s but are slotted to face Ansonia before that on Tuesday.