Karlie keeps control

FORT RECOVERY — The Indians found themselves with just a four point lead and two minutes left against a Midwest Athletic Conference foe.

Without much going for the Tribe, the ball wound up in the hands of the Indians’ offensive leader, Karlie Niekamp.

With multiple defenders converging, the senior found the seam she needed to slip to the rim.

The shot went up, Ava Smith’s arm went into Niekamp, the whistle blew, the ball fell through the rim and all the momentum flipped to the Indians.

Niekamp’s 3-point play sparked a 7-3 run for the Fort Recovery High School girls basketball team late in Thursday’s 51-43 win over the Coldwater Cavaliers, as the senior poured in 22 points to fuel the victory.

The Indians (8-9, 3-4 MAC) have now matched their total conference wins from last season, and they have yet to play ninth-place New Knoxville.

“That’s a big win for us,” said FRHS coach Tyler Deitsch. “Especially at this point in our season … and get another MAC win to match our total from last year with two more opportunities to grow on that. …

It was a tough game where we went through our ups and downs and our ebbs and flows especially in that second quarter, but to be able to fight back from that shows the resiliency in this group.”

Niekamp’s offense and the team’s full and half-court pressure defenses played key roles in the victory.

Following a Mia Knapke triple to open the game for Coldwater (5-12, 3-4 MAC), Niekamp powered a 10-0 run for the Indians. The senior forward scored a pair of buckets in transition and a baseline drive, while going 4-for-4 from the free throw line during the stretch. She capped the run off with a short drive before dishing the ball to Cameron Muhlenkamp on the left elbow for the basket.

She scored seven more points through the second and third quarters before dropping seven in the fourth. Niekamp scored the first hoop of the period on a spin move into a baby-hook middle, had the 3-point play with 2:02 remaining and immediately followed it up with a transition basket. (After Niekamp’s back-to-back scores, Mia Knapke hit a three off of a long rebound before Kennedy Muhlenkmap and Paisley Hart iced the game away by splitting a pair of free throws.)

“That’s huge,” Niekamp said about the momentum swing with her 3-point play. “That definitely gets it on your side, especially in those ends of games. It really brings the whole gym and our whole team together, like, ‘Alright, let’s finish this.’”

Niekamp finished with a game-high 22 points on 80% shooting (8-10) and was perfect from the free throw line at 5-for-5.

While Niekamp provided a bulk of the offense, the Tribe’s defense kept Coldwater at bay. Fort Recovery forced 17 Cavalier turnovers and forced a plethora of quick shots when it didn’t get the steal.

The press was the most effective for the Indians in the first and third quarters. Along with the 10-0 run in the first period, FRHS went on a 12-0 run in the third. In both cases, the Indians got into a cycle of scoring the ball, being able to set up their defense, making a stop with their press and coming down for a quick bucket.

Between the first and third quarters, Fort Recovery outscored Coldwater 31-12.

“Just being long and getting in their eyesight gives them a little bit of fear so they turn it over even if you’re not touching them,” said Kennedy Muhlenkmamp who played at the top of both the 1-2-2 and 2-2-1 full court press sets. “You can tell, when we didn’t have the press it was just havoc, but once we got it, we got in a groove.”

Just like the Indians’ pressure gave Coldwater problems, they struggled with a CHS zone press in the second period. Coldwater managed their own 18-5 run as the Indians turned the ball over eight times in the quarter, while only putting up six shots, only two of which went in.

“It was a different press than we’ve seen in the past,” Deitsch said. “At times we couldn’t really tell if they were in zone or in man. … Something we did in that second quarter, once we broke it, it was go, go, go. We were doing what they wanted us to do, speeding everything up and not getting the quality of shot we wanted.

Brylee Knapke – the Cavaliers’ leading scorer with 15 points – led the second quarter with seven. Mia Knapke was the only other player in black and orange to reach double figures, scoring 11 points.

Supporting Niekamp’s efforts was Bridget Homan with 12 points, Kennedy Muhlenkmap with 10, Cameron Muhlenkamp with six and Hart with one.