Indians roll past Redskins

FORT RECOVERY - St. Henry's deep shooting never got going, and Fort Recovery made the Redskins pay for every miss.

The Indians seized control with a 10-0 run to end the first half and never let up on the way to a 50-37 Midwest Athletic Conference boys basketball win at Fort Site Fieldhouse on Friday.

"They just flat-out beat us in every aspect," St. Henry coach Eric Rosenbeck said, looking at his stat sheet. "It says here they beat us in shooting, they beat us to the foul line, beat us on rebounds.

"It was just an old-fashioned backyard whooping."

St. Henry (8-6, 1-3 MAC) took a 16-15 lead less than two minutes into the second quarter on a short jumper by Evan Bowers, but from there it was all Indians. Caleb Evers answered 21 seconds later, Cale Rammel stole the ball for a breakaway layup, and Owen Jutte hit a pair of threes to stake Fort Recovery (9-4, 3-2 MAC) to a nine-point lead heading into the break.

Bennett Gels hit a three and added a free throw to cut the lead to five early in the third, but Jutte answered with a bucket on the other end and the Redskins' momentum fizzled. Jaden Lange and Sam Koesters missed threes and Logan Homan blocked a Redskins' layup before Jutte stole the ball, drew a foul, and hit both shots from the line to make it 29-20.

"We knew they're streaky from out there," Fort Recovery coach Jim Melton said. "We've seen them on fire from out there, and we've seen them (struggle). So we kind of rolled the dice and played our zone, and it worked out. We were able to control the boards, that's a concern whenever you play a zone, that you rebound well out of it. Our guys did that tonight."

Jutte got another steal on St. Henry's next possession to set up Rammel for a basket that stretched the lead into double digits.

Gels hit another three to cut the lead back to eight, but the Indians' offense kept coming. Caleb Evers hit a layup under the basket and Troy Homan added a corner three with 38 seconds left, drawing a double fist pump from Melton and a roar from the Fort Recovery bench.

"We had lost two in a row, to Botkins and Marion, two very good ball clubs," Melton said. "So we needed this."

St. Henry caught a break in the waning seconds of the third when the Indians' Daniel Patch was assessed a technical foul, and Gels hit both free throws to bring the lead back down to 11. Gels added a three over Rammel on the left side to start the fourth, keeping St. Henry in shouting distance at 36-28.

But from there Jutte took over, adding a layup after a Landon Post steal less than 30 seconds later and putting back his own miss to make it 40-28 with 6:19 to play. Down the stretch, Jutte shot 6-of-6 from the charity stripe, capping a 25-point performance with 10 points in the fourth quarter as Fort Recovery slammed the door.

"He's a gamer," Melton said. "He looks forward to those moments, when it's crunch-time."

Gels scored 18 points for the Redskins. Rammel added 12 for the Indians.

St. Henry's offense was out of sync throughout, shooting just 12-of-41 from the field and 8-of-34 from behind the arc. With Fort Recovery pulling down 13 more rebounds, the Redskins didn't have enough chances to make up for the lackluster shooting.

"They were extended in their zone and we didn't do a very good job of getting inside, getting to the paint, finishing around the rim," Rosenbeck said. "Instead, there were a lot of contested shots. Overall, it was just frustrating. They were just better than us tonight, sometimes it's that simple."

Both teams return to action tonight, with Fort Recovery hosting Fort Loramie and St. Henry returning home to face Wapakoneta.