Lefeld takes command, leads St. Henry past Fort Recovery

FORT RECOVERY - Mitchel Stammen has shouldered the scoring load for St. Henry most of the season

With Stammen struggling on Friday against Fort Recovery, Evan Lefeld put the Redskins on his shoulders and carried them to a 59-48 Midwest Athletic Conference victory at Fort Site Fieldhouse.

The senior scored 12 of his season-high 18 points in the second half and tallied 10 rebounds in a matchup featuring two teams tied for second in the MAC.

"Evan Lefeld can flat-out shoot the basketball. He has the green light and he let it rip," St. Henry coach Eric Rosenbeck said. "Some nights they go in, some nights they don't. But shooters shoot. He had a great game and it wasn't only the three-pointers, it was the offensive rebounds, the stickbacks, the drives to the hole - he had a complete game."

Knotted at 18-all after a sluggish first half of play, St. Henry (15-6, 6-2 MAC) took control of the game with a 21-13 third-quarter run.

Ryan Luttmer buried a three-pointer and Mitch Schwieterman added two more to give the Redskins a 30-25 lead midway through the third. Lefeld closed the quarter with seven points - a corner triple, a shot from the elbow and a stickback after an offensive rebound - Jesse Niekamp added a layup in transition as St. Henry extended its lead to 39-31 by the end.

The Indians (13-6, 5-3 MAC) got within four points twice early in the fourth quarter but the Redskins continued to keep them at a safe distance. After Chase Bruns' steal and layup made the score 39-35, Luttmer knocked down his second three-pointer of the half. Bruns followed with a triple of his own but then Niekamp responded with an old-fashioned three-point play to push the lead back to seven.

Lefeld put St. Henry up double digits with 4:15 to play, hitting a three-pointer and then adding a bucket in the paint on consecutive possessions. St. Henry's lead never dipped below eight points the rest of the way.

"It was a great team win," Rosenbeck said. "Give Fort Recovery and that coaching staff all the credit in the world, they did a great job of focusing in on Mitchel Stammen and making the rest of the St. Henry team beat them. Evan Lefeld just played an absolutely phenomenal game."

It wasn't all Lefeld, though.

Niekamp scored 12, Schwieterman added 11, Luttmer added seven and Paul Stammen - a 5-foot-10 point guard - posted a game-high 11 rebounds to go along with four points and five assists.

"Paul Stammen is as tough as a kid as you're going to find and he finished with double-digit boards," Rosenbeck added. "We had big shots from Ryan Luttmer and Mitch Schwieterman as well. It was probably our most solid team win of the entire season."

The Indians shut down Mitchel Stammen like they wanted to, holding the MAC's second-leading scorer to seven points on 0-10 shooting. Stammen had just one point before cashing 6-of-6 at the line in the final two minutes. But Fort Recovery couldn't overcome the play of Lefeld, who nearly tripled his scoring average on 7-of-15 shooting.

"We had trouble locating a hot shooter and that's what he became in this game," Fort Recovery coach Chris Guggenbiller said. "We executed our defensive game plan pretty much spot on how we wanted to, but Lefeld comes in and hits big shots."

A rough night offensively didn't help the Tribe, either. They looked out-of-sync most of the evening and finished 16-of-52 from the field.

"Half-court wise we couldn't get in a rhythm, we couldn't get into a flow," Guggenbiller said. "A lot of it was because of what St. Henry was doing to us, but it's also a lot on ourselves. We weren't executing, moving the ball, sharing the ball in our half-court offense."

Three Indians reached double figures in Micaiah Cox (14 points), Bruns (11 points) and Caleb Martin (11 points).

Rivalry bragging rights belong to St. Henry after this one, but the outright MAC championship officially belongs to the Versailles Tigers, who dispatched Minster 64-27 on Friday.

St. Henry will go for another rivalry win next Friday when they host Coldwater. The winner will take second place in the MAC.

The Indians host St. Marys tonight before finishing up the regular season at Marion Local next Friday.