Power Play

FORT RECOVERY - It was one slow quarter that finally brought down unbeaten New Knoxville.

The Rangers fell behind 14-4 in the first quarter and never got back in front despite a furious comeback as Fort Recovery held on for a 43-38 win in a key Midwest Athletic Conference girls basketball contest at Fort Site Fieldhouse Thursday night.

"I always say, 'Good teams win big; great teams can finish,' " Fort Recovery coach Holly Gann said. "Tonight we were able to see a great team."

New Knoxville (7-1, 3-1 MAC) finally cut the lead to 32-31 with 4:15 remaining in the game on a pair of free throws by Avery Henschen. But the Indians' Paige Fortkamp hit a pair on the other end to stretch the lead to three, and Mara Pearson stole the ball on the Rangers' next possession.

After four offensive rebounds for Fort Recovery (8-3, 3-1 MAC), Brenna Homan hit two more free throws to bring the lead back to five and add some much-needed insurance.

"Our girls came back," New Knoxville coach Tim Hegemier said. "But I don't think (Fort Recovery) missed too many free throws."

Haley Fledderjohann hit a three with 46.2 seconds left to cut the deficit to two, and after another pair of free throws brought it back to four, Morgan Leffel hit a layup with 17 seconds left to make it 40-38. But the Rangers had to foul and the Indians kept hitting their free throws, making three of the last four in the final 17 seconds to secure the margin.

All told, Fort Recovery shot 16-of-22 from the charity stripe, including 12-of-15 in the fourth quarter.

"We're a 56 percent free-throw shooting team," Gann said. "So if I was a coach, I'd say, 'Yeah, get them shooting free throws,' right? Today, we didn't see that team. We were able to finish when it counted."

After New Knoxville missed a shot on its first possession, Kierra Wendel hit a three to give the Indians the lead, and the Rangers trailed from there. Henschen hit a layup for the Rangers on the other end to answer, but Fort Recovery went on an 11-2 run before Haley Fledderjohann hit a pair of free throws to make it 14-6 at the end of the first.

"We just weren't reversing the ball around," Hegemier said. We'd pass it in and just expect to get a shot. It doesn't work like that against a good team. We had to start passing it out, reversing it around more."

As the game went on, the Rangers chipped away at the lead, trailing by five at halftime and by four after three. Leffel made a free throw to briefly make it a two-point game before Pearson stole a Rangers inbound pass with 35 seconds left, and Wendel hit two on the other end to bring the lead back to four and close out the third.

But despite shooting just 30% from the field, New Knoxville kept up the pressure, and the two teams traded baskets until midway through the quarter, when the Indians finally gained an edge.

"I thought our pressure, our defensive intensity, kept them not looking comfortable the whole game," Gann said. "Now as you can see, it's a great team. It's a great team. We play them 10 times, it's going to be this (close)."

Both teams return to action Saturday, as New Knoxville will look to bounce back at the Barn against Wapakoneta while Fort Recovery hosts Mechanicsburg.