Trojans take out Tribe

MONROE, Ohio — The Indians knew Alexis Gibbons could cause problems for their defense. But it was the Trojans’ suffocating interior defense that ultimately spelled the Tribe’s defeat.

The fourth-seeded Fort Recovery High School girls basketball team was held to its third-lowest mark of the season as the No. 3 seed Arcanum Trojans defeated the Indians 44-25 in the OHSAA Division VI Southwest 2 District Championship on Saturday at Monroe.

The win advances the Trojans (16-9) to the Region 24 opener at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at Springfield, in which they will face the Minster Wildcats, another Midwest Athletic Conference team.

While the season came to an end for Fort Recovery (12-13), it achieved a major goal of reaching the district finals, something it hadn’t done since the 2010-11 season.

“That was huge,” said senior forward Karlie Niekamp. “Our goal was to make it to districts. At the beginning of the season, we knew that it was a very attainable goal and our hard work got us here.”

“I mean, this season has been a great experience for our team,” added FRHS coach Tyler Deitsch. “Especially being a younger team. Just two seniors, no juniors and the rest are sophomores and freshmen. Them getting a taste of this will be really good motivation going into our offseason.”

The Tribe put together a solid opening quarter, outpacing Arcanum 11-8.

Bridget Homan put in the first two buckets for the Tribe as she hit a second-chance three on an assist from Cameron Muhlenkamp and converted a three-point play after crashing the offensive glass in transition. Niekamp also had a pair of baskets by driving to the hoop. Cameron Muhlenkamp scored the final point on a free throw.

After the 11-point first quarter, the FRHS offense came to a screeching halt, producing only 14 more through the rest of the game.

The Trojans switched between man-to-man and zone defenses, putting an emphasis on protecting the paint. As a result, they held Fort Recovery to 20% (9-for-45) from the field. The emphasis on defending the paint also resulted in seven blocked shots — four from Carolina Long, two by Brooke Anderson and one from Faith Wooten. They also forced 18 turnovers.

“They’re scrappy,” said Niekamp, who scored a team-high 10 points. “They were getting their hands on everything. It wasn’t like they would come over all the way, but they’d just get a hand on the ball and that made it tough getting it inside and we just didn’t handle their pressure very well.”

While the Trojans put together a strong defense, Gibbons powered the offensive effort. The senior guard scored all eight first-quarter points and put up 10 more in the second to help Arcanum to a 24-17 lead at the intermission. Gibbons outscored the Indians by herself 18-17 in the first half. She’d finish with 22 points, just three shy of the Tribe’s total, on 10-of-12 (83.3%) shooting.

“She’s such a smart player,” Dietsch said. “She’s able to take advantage of whatever’s there and then she’s really good on top of it. … If a team’s going to take her out, she’ll go stand in the corner and let her teammates do what they need to do and set screens to set them up for success that way.”

That’s exactly what Gibbons did when Dietsch had Niekamp start face guarding her. As she stood out of the way, a pair of Trojans took advantage as Long and Josie Schwartz put up nine and eight points, respectively.

Long hit four layups off slips to the rim and curl screens. Schwartz drilled a pair of shots beyond the arc on a flair screen and skip passes from Anderson.

“The big one in my mind was our freshman, Josie, hitting a couple of big threes,” said AHS coach Abbey Moore. “That’s big for a girl that young to come into an environment like this and do it when we’re in a little bit of foul trouble. So that’s great and gives us the momentum and energy.”

As a team, Arcanum shot 18-for-38 (47.4%) from the field. Of those 19 field goals, 11 came from the result of assists (57.9%). Anderson led with four assists, while Claire Hein, Long and Matty Noe each had two and Schwartz dished out one. 

Cameron Muhlenkamp's pass to Homan, who followed Niekamp with eight points, on the first Tribe hoop was the only assist on the nine field goals (11.1%).

The Indians will lose its two leading scorers next year as Niekamp and Kennedy Muhlenkamp graduate.

“All the time the (younger girls) got to spend with Karlie and Kennedy is huge,” said Dietsch. “We’re going to miss those two a lot. The way they play, the way they practice and just everything they bring to the locker room. It was awesome to have those guys as leaders the last two years. ... Love those girls. Hard working, always doing the right thing at the right time and putting the team first.”