Inside-out to upside down

NEW BREMEN — The Indians led for the majority of the first three quarters. They scored the first three points of the final period, but a 14-point run did them in.

Fort Recovery High School’s girls basketball team had an opportunity for a Midwest Athletic Conference win on Thursday, but it slipped away as the New Bremen Cardinals outscored 11 more points in the fourth to give the Indians a 38-28 loss.

“Every conference game that we play, it’s a dog fight,” said FRHS coach Tyler Deitsch. “A lot of things just came down to executing down the stretch. They definitely did execute and we weren’t able to, whether it was rushing shots, or just not taking the right shots at the right time. That’s what a lot of it came down to, just being disciplined down the stretch.”

The Tribe (2-10, 0-4 MAC) entered the fourth quarter with a 24-22 advantage. Bridget Homan ran up the first three points of the period after splitting a pair of foul shots and a jumper at the free-throw line.

The Cardinals (5-8, 2-2 MAC) didn’t stay down long. They cut it to a one-possession game after a baseline-out-of-bounds give-and-go play had Sophia Tangeman knocking down a short corner jumper on an assist from Lucia Whitlatch.

New Bremen tied things up 26 seconds later as Halle Kuenning got the ball in the post and kicked it out to Whitlatch on the opposite wing for a three.

“That’s normally how we like to play,” said NBHS coach Stephanie Wheeler, whose team made a concerted effort to penetrate the area in the second half. “We didn’t have Stella (Patch) so we were lacking maybe a little bit with the ball handling that we normally have in the attack. So we needed to get it inside. To execute what we were running already. We just struggled to execute the first half with too many turnovers.”

Kuenning then scored four points after a post up led to a pair of free throws and by ripping down an offensive rebound and putting it back up.

Whitlatch hit the kill shot with 2:14 remaining on an assist from Maria Kramer. Two more free throws from Whitlatch put the Cardinals up 36-27 with 1:07 left. (Tangeman hit a final pair of foul shots after the 14-0 run was over).

The Tribe’s offense stalled to end the third and fourth quarters. Fort Recovery was up eight points with three minutes left in the third before giving up six unanswered points and didn’t score in the final seven minutes of the game other than a free throw from Makenna Huelskamp.

New Bremen put on a press that sped up the Indians and baited rushed shots. The Cardinals were also able to take advantage of Huelskamp being in foul trouble for a majority of the second half.

“I think the big thing was them keeping us outta the flow with them being in the press,” Deitsch said. “Not having Makenna definitely doesn’t help. She does a really good job of controlling the pace and being able to get us set up and into things. … Then when we broke the press and got it into the half court, we were a little bit helter skelter.”

While the Tribe has faced some tribulations throughout the season, Deitsch hopes his team will learn from the loss as it prepares for the second half of the season and the tournament.

“It all just kinda builds on each other, whether it’s them making shots or us not making shots and getting back to set up on defense,” Deitsch said. “This game will be a good learning experience for our girls to be able to take down the stretch and going into the tournament and our second half of the season.”