Cardinals face defeat against the Roughriders
BOTKINS — The Botkins and Fort Loramie Basketball Teams clashed at Botkins High School Friday night to open 2023-24 Shelby County Athletic League play. Fortunately for the hosting Trojans, they blew out Fort Loramie 63-35 in their Homecoming Game.
“Our kids came out and battled for 32 minutes,” said Botkins Head Coach Phillip Groves, following the game.
“I am extremely proud of our effort and energy again tonight. We got in some foul trouble early, then when Fort Loramie cut our lead to single digits in the third quarter, I thought our kids did a good job of countering their run,” added Groves. “Tonight was just a great team effort.”
“Botkins played well and we didn’t take care of the basketball,” noted Fort Loramie Head Coach Mitch Westerheide, following the loss.
“Credit to them. I need to do a better job of getting our kids ready to play from the start,” added Westerheide.
The Trojans were able to jump onto a quick 16-2 first-quarter lead. Botkins had a 24-12 halftime lead, however, Fort Loramie came out in the third quarter firing to cut the lead down to seven with two Alex Boerger three-pointers. Botkins answered with threes of their own and forced numerous Redskin turnovers to pull away.
Collin Doseck led Botkins and all scorers with 19 secondhalf points, while other scorers included Rylyn Paul (13), Russel Lenhart (9), Jordan Herzog (7), Grant Flora (7), J.J. Meyer (3), Noah Topp (3), and Tucker Huelskamp (2).
Boerger led Fort Loramie with 11 points. Spencer Knouff (5), Carter Gasson (5), Max Maurer (4), and Eli Heitkamp (3) followed.
With the victory, Botkins increased their perfect record to 3-0 and will look to get another win when they travel to SCAL foe Jackson Center (0-1), who won the league last season. Fort Loramie dropped to 0-1 in their seasonopening loss and will look to bounce back when they travel to Fort Recovery (1-0) on Tuesday.