Indians hand Rangers first defeat
FORT RECOVERY — Fort Recovery used strong first and fourth quarters and free throw shooting to put away New Knoxville on Thursday night, earning a 43-38 Midwest Athletic Conference win at home and handing the Rangers their first loss on the season.
The Indians (8-3, 4-1 MAC) were led by Kierra Wendel who finished with a game- high 15 points, including eight in the opening quarter.
In the first, Fort Recovery opened the game on a 10- 4 run in part to scoring from Wendel and big plays on both ends of the floor by Whitley Rammel.
The Indians finished the quarter up 14- 6. The Rangers (8-1, 3-1 MAC) would reverse things in the second period, picking up the pressure on defense playing a stout man-to-man and not letting Fort Recovery get anything too easy. The Indians settled for outside shots, hitting one 3-pointer and a long two in the quarter.
New Knoxville outscored the Indians 9- 6 in the second. Each team finished the half with six turnovers and identical number of field goal attempts at 18 apiece.
Fort Recovery got out to a 27-20 lead to begin the third quarter including a made 3-pointer by Paige Fortkamp.
Avery Henschen scored four of her 10 points in the fourth as did Ellie Gabel.
Rammel got into foul trouble to begin the fourth quarter and had to go to the bench and the Rangers took advantage of that, getting the ball into Henschen in the post on straight possessions.
She connected on a layup to put the Rangers behind 29
27 but Alli Vaughn answered right away with a layup of her own.
Later in the quarter, Henschen drained two free throws to put the Rangers behind by one at 32-31, the closest they had been all night.
The Indians then scored on two straight possessions to go up 36-31.
New Knoxville’s defense picked up the intensity and forced the Indians to call timeout with 2:34 left.
Carsyn Henschen scored on a putback layup with 2:11 left and Fort Recovery called timeout on their next possession with 1:53 remaining.
Following the timeout, the Indians started playing stall ball, taking 55 seconds off the clock before Haley Fledderjohann fouled Wendel.
Free throws were a key part for Fort Recovery’s win on Thursday, going 16-for-22 from the line and making them down the stretch when it counted.
Wendel made both foul shots and the Indians went up 38-33.
On the Rangers next possession, Fledderjohann drained a 3-pointer from the left wing to go down by two.
Needing to keep fouling, Gabel fouled Vaughn who proceeded to make both of her free throws, putting the Indians back up by four.
Leffel nailed a short jumper on the left side of the hoop to make the score 40-38 and the Rangers called timeout .
Wendel then made both of her free throws after getting fouled under 20 seconds left.
Fledderjohann’s 3-point attempt to cut the lead to one fell short and the Indians secured the rebound and ultimately the game.
Rangers coach Tim Hegemier commented after the loss, saying his team has to do a better job of executing the offensive game plan.
“We’re just a little bit — about a half second or second — too slow to get the ball and reverse it around and see what else [is available],” he said. “In the first half, it was always throw it in [to the post], and we were expecting to get a shot. It doesn’t work that way against a good team. You have to reverse the ball around and then get your shot.”
Following the Rangers first loss of the year, Hegemier said it’s OK to forget about the loss and prepare for the rest of the season.
“We’ve got a stretch here where we’ve got to play nine games in three weeks so we just have to forget about this one and come out and play the next one,” he said.