Pressed out

FORT RECOVERY — A pair of freshmen played some big minutes to help get the Tribe back in the game.

But the Bulldogs’ pressure ended up being too much.

The Celina Bulldogs’ full-court pressure bothered the Fort Recovery High School girls basketball team all night as it fell 46-27 on Monday.

“I’m happy with the way that our girls played hard the full 32 minutes, no matter what the score was,” said FRHS coach Tyler Deitsch. “We got down pretty big there in the middle of that third quarter. We pulled back within single digits there in the fourth, playing with energy. … Defensively, they're a really good team and a really aggressive team.”

The Bulldogs (13-7) never gave the Tribe guards a break. Anytime Celina scored or committed a dead-ball turnover, it brought out one of a handful of full court press sets. The Bulldogs even tracked down Makenna Huelskamp and Paisley Hart to apply pressure after rebounds at times as well.

As a result of the pressure, Fort Recovery (6-13) turned the ball over 26 times and gave up 17 transition points, which accounted for 37% of Celina’s scoring.

“That’s just kinda who we are and how we’ve got to play,” said CHS coach Bret Baucher. “We’re very fortunate that we’ve got nine girls that we trust that are pretty athletic and can move.

“Obviously we’re not huge. Every time we go on the floor, we’re going to be the smaller team, so we’ve got to use our quickness and our athleticism. As long as we communicate and rotate properly, we do a pretty good job of creating that pressure and some of those turnovers.”

The Indians fell behind by as 17 points with 3:07 remaining in the third quarter.

With Bridget Homan out for the season — the Tribe’s leading scorer injured her knee during Thursday’s game against New Knoxville — Deitsch tried to shake some things up. Along with starters Huelskamp, Maddie Schoenlein and Cameron Muhlenkamp, he had freshmen Kayla Gaerke and Kayden Ranly on the floor to start the fourth quarter.

The duo provided a nice lift for FRHS. On the defensive end of the floor, the freshmen each blocked a shot and ripped down three rebounds.

Offensively, they were part of the unit that helped get the Tribe back into the game. Fort Recovery scored the first basket of the period on a Schoenlein triple assisted by Muhlenkamp. On the next possession, Gaerke came up as a pressure release valve and brought the ball down the floor before finding Ranly under the hoop for two.

“That was big for (Ranly),” Deitsch said. “Kayden’s been really impressive in practice and games lately. She’s a big kid and has length, she had a block on a close out tonight. … There was just a spark whenever both of them were on the floor together.”

Lilly Shreffler split a pair of free throws on the other end of the floor before Huelskamp cut the margin to single digits at 36-27 with 5:10 remaining.

Rachel Rammel and the Bulldogs regained control and never relinquished it. Celina buckled down on defense to force the Indians to commit five more turnovers, resulting in a 10-0 run to close out the game.

Rammel, who ended with a game-high 19 points, scored six of the final 10 points on two transition layups and two free throws.

“We got a little lackadaisical there, and they rewarded themselves,” Baucher said. “We said, ‘No more points.’ That was a challenge to shut them out the rest of the way and they did that. Good defense led to a couple of transition buckets that sealed the door.”