Indians run past Panthers

ROCKFORD - It's basketball season, sure.

But first-year Fort Recovery girls coach Holly Gann wants her team to get out and run likes it's track season.

Fort Recovery pushed the pace on Thursday and ran past host Parkway for a 48-18 win in Midwest Athletic Conference play.

"The goal is to get out and go and run the ball so they have to pick us up in transition," Gann said. "As you can see, we do tend to run more of a four-guard, one-post set. That allows us to be quicker than some of the teams we play because of our size. That is always the goal, to push the ball. Sometimes we can do it and other times we can't. Today it was really nice to see us judging when we can go and push and when we have to pull it out and slow down."

The Indians won their second straight contest in improving to 4-2 overall and 1-1 in MAC play. The Panthers dropped their third straight contest in falling to 1-3 and 0-2 in conference games.

Paige Fortkamp scored five quick points and the Indians forced five Panther turnovers during an 8-0 run in the game's first 3 1/2 minutes. Gabrielle followed with 3-pointers on back-to-back possessions for the Panthers, before the Indians put together a quarter-closing 6-0 run for a 14-6 advantage.

Kierra Wendel, Brooke Kahlig and Val Muhlenkamp all had buckets in the first 3 minutes of quarter two to stretch the Indians' run to 12-0 and lead to 20-6. Olivia Patch added a pair of offensive stickbacks and Fortkamp knocked down a 3 to make her total 10 points in what ended up being a 19-zip run. Stober gave Parkway its first point of the second quarter with a free throw, and the Panthers trailed 27-10 at halftime.

"Early on, we gave them too many transition points," said first-year Parkway coach Dan Williamson. "We didn't sprint back after turnovers, which led to some easy scoring opportunities for them. I thought our half-court defense early on was pretty solid for the most part, but when you give them that many extra possessions, that many extra shots, it's tough to contain."

Fort Recovery made its first 5-of-7 shots in the third quarter. The field goals were made by five different players, and Fort Recovery led 38-15 after three quarters.

Fortkamp scored a team-high 12 for the Indians, who outrebounded the Panthers 38-15 and held them to 6-of-35 shooting.

Stober scored a game-high 13 points for Parkway, which had just three players in the scoring column.

The Panthers host Antwerp on Saturday. The Indians are off until next Saturday when they welcome Arcanum to Fort Site Fieldhouse.