Wednesday, January 6th, 2016
Indians rout Trojans 60-29
By Colin Foster
Photo by Nick Wenning/The Daily Standard
Fort Recovery's Grace Thien goes behind the back during a game with Arcanum Tuesday at Fort Site Fieldhouse. Thien led all scorers with 15 points in the 60-29 win.
FORT RECOVERY - A good team from Arcanum traveled to play Fort Recovery on Tuesday night.
The Trojans couldn't keep up with an Indian team that might be on the verge of greatness.
Grace Thien scored 15 points, Kendra Siefring added 14 and the Indians overwhelmed the now 6-6 Trojans in a 60-29 victory at Fort Site Fieldhouse.
"We knew coming in they were a good team and we were going to have to play well to win," said Fort Recovery coach Brian Patch after his team ran its record to 8-2. "I thought the score is not indicative of them. It was more about how well we played, how focused we were and how well we executed on offense and defense."
Patch was speaking the truth - it was a dominant effort all around.
The Indians had advantages in nearly every statistical category. They had a 23-17 rebounding edge and shot 58 percent from the field as Arcanum was held to 24 percent. Fort Recovery had just nine turnovers compared with Arcanum's 15 and also totaled 14 assists on 25 made field goals, led by Carley Stone's four.
Arcanum took a brief 3-2 lead in the first quarter on a Stevie Johnting 3-pointer. Whitney Will splashed a triple of her own and added a corner jumper and the Indians never trailed again. Jocelyn Kaiser and Kendra Siefring added four points apiece in the first as Fort Recovery built a 16-9 lead.
All five starters were in the scorebook less than a minute into the second quarter when Carley Stone hit a floater in the lane. Arcanum stayed in the game by hitting from deep range. The Trojans connected on their first 4-of-6 on 3-pointers and kept the score within eight with five minutes left in the second. However, Fort Recovery closed the quarter with an 11-2 run, capped by Grace Thien's second three-pointer, and built a 31-14 lead by break.
Thien drilled her third trey to open the second half. She added another from deep with 4:20 to go. Stone swiped the following Trojan inbound pass and scored and the rout was on.
"We have some playmakers who can do some things," Patch said. "I thought Carley Stone did a good job of getting our offense going. Grace is playing with a lot of confidence. Kendra is playing with a lot of confidence. Our biggest thing right now is trying to get some of our other kids to play with confidence, too. I thought Kiah Wendel came in and gave us some great minutes off the bench. I thought Whitney Will did a lot of nice stuff for us. Defensively I thought we were really good at holding some really good players in check."
Will added 11 points and Kaiser also pitched in eight for the Indians, who will put their unbeaten MAC record on the line Thursday at Parkway.
Photo by Nick Wenning/The Daily Standard
Fort Recovery's Kiah Wendel goes in for an easy layup after a steal during Tuesday's game.