Indians rally to hold off Panthers

FORT RECOVERY - When Caden Slusher's three fell right before the buzzer at the end of the third quarter to give Parkway its first lead, the Panthers had all the momentum.

Slusher's three completed a 10-point comeback for Parkway and sent Fort Recovery into the fourth trailing 34-33. But the Indians recovered in the final stanza, scoring 18 points to secure a 51-43 win over their Midwest Athletic Conference foe at Fort Site Fieldhouse on Friday night.

"It was a battle," Parkway coach Doug Hughes said. "It was a typical Friday night in the MAC. We had to bring a lot of toughness over here, and that's what our kids did, we hung tough. It was a battle back and forth, and then three or four minutes to go in the fourth quarter it kind of got away from us a little bit."

Fort Recovery retook the lead on the first possession of the fourth quarter when Derek Jutte was fouled on a layup and converted the and-one. Another Jutte layup made it a four-point lead, but after two and a half scoreless minutes, Parkway's Dylan Hughes hit a three to make it 38-37.

That was as close as the Panthers would get. Regan Martin, who came in off the bench when Jutte went to the locker room with an injury, hit two free throws and added a breakaway layup to extend the lead to five as Parkway's shooting went cold.

"They went triangle-two and we struggled to get good looks," coach Hughes said of the fourth quarter. "I think we forced some shots there."

Parkway pulled back within three with just over a minute to play, but Brian Bihn and Gavin Thobe went 5-of-6 on free throws to close it out.

To that point, the Indians had shot just 8-of-19 from the foul line.  

"We've got to finish from the line," Fort Recovery coach Jim Melton said. "Games are won or lost at the charity stripe. We were fortunate tonight."

After nearly four scoreless minutes to start the game, Fort Recovery pulled ahead by five in the first quarter before the Panthers came back, tying the game at 8-8 as Grant Bollenbacher hit a short jumper at the buzzer. The Indians shut out Parkway in the first three minutes of the second and went on a 9-2 run to pull away again.

This time, the lead stuck, at least for a little while. The two teams traded shots through the end of the second quarter and Fort Recovery went into the break up six.

The Indians outrebounded Parkway 16-11 in the first half, but pulled down just seven the rest of the way as the Panthers came back.

"We need to be better from the free throw line and rebounding, but hey, you know what, we found a way to win," Melton said. "It felt like a playoff game to me. The game was up and down, and we had to fight through some adversity there. Kudos to our guys who found a way to pull it out."

When the Indians went up 28-18 early in the third quarter, Parkway's Dylan Hughes went on a personal 10-2 run to make it a two-point game. The loss came despite a remarkable effort from Hughes, who scored a game-high 29 points.

Brian Bihn and Derek Jutte led Fort Recovery with 13 points each, with Martin scoring 11. As a team, the Indians committed 11 personal fouls, while the Panthers were charged with 21.

Both teams return to action tonight, with Fort Recovery hosting Ansonia and Parkway going back on the road to take on St. Marys in a 4 p.m JV start.