Breaking the press

FORT RECOVERY — The Indians haven’t had the strongest offensive team this year. They have only scored more than 40 points once this season.

After losing another upperclassman on an already young team, it was going to be hard to exceed that mark again.

The four remaining starters proved that idea wrong.

Fort Recovery High School’s girls basketball team put on its offensive performance of the season in a 51-36 victory over the Ansonia Tigers on Tuesday.

“The way we played tonight is the way we feel like we finally should be,” FRHS coach Tyler Deitsch. “Just able to put the ball in the basket tonight, the way that we know that we can. We haven’t done that. We haven’t scored this many points all season.

“Finally being able to see the ball go through the net, it just carried all the way through everybody. We had confidence in our shots. Being able to hit those was awesome.”

This was just the second game for the Indians (3-8) since they lost junior Kennedy Muhlenkamp to a shoulder injury in their game at St. Henry on Dec. 29. The remaining four starters — Karlie Niekamp, Makenna Huelskamp, Cali Wendel and Saige Leuthold — stepped up to score in double figures for the game.

They were the only Fort Recovery players to score, but they still found a way to put up their highest team score of 51. The previous high came in a 43-38 win over Mississinawa Valley on Nov. 28.

“The balance across the board is huge when you can do that,” Deitsch said. “It translates well into a game like that when you play defense.”

Beyond just Muhlenkamp’s scoring, the injury took away another primary ball handler from the Indians, forcing more work on Wendel and Huelskamp. With the Tigers (6-7) liking to run a full-court press, the two guards had their hands full.

The press caused problems for FRHS early in the game as Ansonia forced turnovers early to help develop a 7-5 lead. After a few early turnovers, the Indians started to settle down.

“My teammates know what to do to get through that press without Kennedy,” Wendel said. “We knew this was a team where we could attack and get back into that winning way. We knew they press and how to beat it by getting the ball up and pass ahead. That’s what we tried to do and it worked for us tonight.”

The tides turned with 3 minutes, 38 seconds remaining in the first quarter. London Reichert committed Ansonia’s fifth team foul on a press break to send Wendel to the line, who split the pair of free throws.

That foul shot was the first point of a 24-0 Fort Recovery run that lasted 7 minutes, 42 seconds. The run was ended at the 3:40 mark of the second quarter when Gabby Leeper hit a 3-pointer on a kick out by Brenna Schmit, but the Indians still boasted a commanding 29-10 lead at that point.

“It was awesome to get up early,” Wendel said. “At the end of the game when we were getting a little lazy, it helped that when they scored we were still up by a lot.”

A major contributor to that run was the Indian’s defense.

Without scoring, Ansonia wasn’t able to set up its pressure, in turn not getting the opportunity to get a quick steal and put up points off of turnovers, creating a cycle that was hard to get out of.

“Even though we were turning over the ball a little more than we would like to, defensively, being able to sandwich stops anytime we would score was huge,” Deitsch said. “Defensive is a big part of our game. Our defensive average is getting better and better each game. I think we’ve held just about everybody below their season average.”

Before Tuesday’s game, the Tigers averaged 43.4 points per game. Fort Recovery held them to 32 – just over 10 points below Ansonia’s season average – before the benches started to empty, giving Ansonia the opportunity to tack on four more.

Two more key stats from the Indians’ 24-point run were the six assists being dished out by Wendel and Huelskamp as well as Leuthold, Wendel and Huelskamp combining for 7-for-8 from the charity stripe. The two guards ended up with five assists each, while the team shot a collective 15-for-17 at the line.

Niekamp and Huelskamp both led the way with 14 points. Dietsch had high praise for Niekamp, stating that her height and skillset is something that his team will need to lean on moving forward. He is also happy with her stepping up more as a leader.

“Her post moves she has whenever she gets into the paint, especially when driving on someone or has her back to the basket, are some of the best any player has had of anybody I’ve ever coached,” Dietsch said.

Huelskamp credited her success to reading the defense to drive when the Tigers pressured her and shooting as she got the ball on the weak side and the defense sank too far away from her.

One point behind was Wendel with 13 and Leuthold scored 10. All four players grabbed at least six rebounds as well, with Niekamp pulling in the most at nine.

Ansonia was led by Rose Barga, who finished 5-for-10 from the floor for 10 points and ripped away five rebounds.

Fort Recovery resumes Midwest Athletic Conference play today as it hosts the St. John’s Bluejays. 

    Makenna Huelskamp of Fort Recovery High School goes up for a layup while being fouled by Lydia Hahn (3) of Ansonia. The Indians shot 17 free throws in the 51-36 win, connecting on 88.2% of them. (The Commercial Review/Andrew Balko)
  

Junior varsity

The Fort Recovery junior varsity fell to Ansonia 27-19 in a two-quarter game.

Sophia Guggenbiller and Brynn Willmann each hit a pair of shots in the opening frame as the Tigers took a 1-point lead.

Baskets were hard to come by in the second quarter, as only Cameron Muhlenkamp and Cadence Eber hit shots from the field. Olivia Schmitmeyer and Sophia Aultman both put in a pair of hoops during the second quarter, as the Tigers outpaced the Indians 15-8.

No one broke double-digits for either team, but four free throws and two baskets pushed Lydia Hahn to a game-high eight points.

Guggenbiller and Willmann both scored six to lead the Indians.