0 for the half

COVINGTON, Ohio — The Indians weren’t satisfied with their defensive effort in the first half, letting the Cardinals slip in six baskets en route to 16 points.

The Tribe had to be happy with the second-half response as it held the Cardinals scoreless from the field through the final two periods and just three points in total.

The fourth-seeded Fort Recovery High School girls basketball team came out of the locker room with a defensive intensity that held the No. 11 seed Triad Cardinals to just three points on garbage-time free throws to win its first postseason game since 2022 48-19 on Saturday in the OHSAA Division VI sectional championship hosted by  Covington.

The victory earns the Indians (11-12) a date with second-seeded West Liberty-Salem in Tuesday’s Southwest 2 District semifinal game at Covington at approximately 7:30 p.m. It also marks the first postseason victory for Fort Recovery since it beat Waynesfield-Goshen 60-21 in 2022, the first sectional title since beating Minster 53-50 at home in 2021 and Tyler Deitsch’s first postseason victory as a head coach.

“That’s a good one for us to have and a good notch in our belt,” Deitsch said. “Obviously it’s one game at a time, but you have your eyes set on a district championship to start the season. So it’s nice to check that step one off the list to being able to get there.”

FRHS gave up 16 first-half points to Triad (5-18), all of which came in some sort of scramble situation. Gracie Martin opened the game with a wild transition jumper that banked in before Bre Parsons grabbed a weak-side offensive rebound for a putback on the next possession. Parsons then threw a shot over her shoulder a minute later before Mia LeMay knocked down a pair of free throws by ripping the ball through Karlie Niekamp’s body.

LeMay scored a pair of one-on-one buckets off of press breaks early in the second quarter before Martin pulled a guarded 3-pointer and Jazz Ford split a pair of free throws off an offensive rebound.

    Emma Schmitz of the Fort Recovery High School girls basketball team tracks down an offensive rebound during the Indians’ 48-19 win over Triad in the OHSAA Division VI Southwest 2 sectional championship on Saturday at Covington. The Tribe hit the offensive glass 24 times in the win and held the Cardinals without a field goal in the second half. (The Commercial Review/Andrew Balko)

In the second half, Fort Recovery had the Cardinals scratching their heads trying to find any offense. The Indians held Triad scoreless in the third while holding it to 0-for-7 from the field, getting a pair of free throws and forcing six turnovers.

The Tribe kept the strong defense up in the final period, resulting in 0-of-10 shooting for THS and four turnovers. Triad finally scored it’s first point of the half with 3:09 remaining when Martin split a pair of free throws earned from an offensive rebound. (Abbey Overfield hit a pair of bonus free throws as well.)

While the Indians’ defense improved, Kennedy Muhlenkamp powered a 15-point third quarter to pull away from Triad.

“It was definitely my mom (assistant coach Mandy Gerlach) telling me from the bench, ‘it doesn’t matter if you make your shots,’” Kennedy Muhlenkamp said. “‘Just play defense hard and rebound hard and then you’ll get the buckets that you’ll need.’”

After shooting 1-for-7 (14.3%) during the first half, the Tribe senior put home her first shot of the third period on a one-dribble pull up outside of the left lane line off an offensive rebound by Bridget Homan.

She’d score the next two baskets by hitting the offensive glass in transition and running a fake hand off with sister Cameron Muhlenkamp off of a baseline-out-of-bounds play for a short drive to the rim.

Kennedy Muhlenkamp assisted the next hoop by passing the ball ahead to Madie Schoenlein, who Deitsch praised for her improvement as a bench player, for a triple from the left wing. She scored one more time in the period by grabbing an offensive rebound, giving it up to Niekamp, relocating to the right corner and getting the ball back off a drive for a three.

Kennedy Muhlenkamp finished with 18 points, only being outdone by Niekamp with 22. Niekamp finished with a double-double, grabbing a game-high 13 rebounds.

Fort Recovery dominated on the glass, outrebounding the Cardinals 46-28. The Indians grabbed 24 offensive boards, while Triad only finished 18 possessions with a rebound, and four of those were due to the ball ricocheting out of bounds.

“At practice we’ve been working a lot on (offensive rebounding),” said forward Bridget Homan. “I feel like that’s helped a lot. … It’s really just pushing through and going through the other team.”

Of Niekamp’s 13 rebounds, four came at the offensive end of the floor. Homan followed with 10 total rebounds, seven of which were offensive and Kennedy Muhlenkamp grabbed five of the Tribe’s missed shots and one more for six boards.

LeMay led Triad with six rebounds and six points. Martin also had six for THS.

The Indians are now one step closer to their first district championship since 2011. They will have to beat the Tigers (16-7) first, but Deitsch is hoping to take advantage of the Indians’ first year in the southwest district.

“West Liberty-Salem is a good team, one of the best in their conference year after year,” Deitsch said. “So it isn’t their first time going through this district where it is for us. We look to use that as an advantage that they don’t know a ton about us and we’ve been able to keep an eye on them these past few weeks.”