By BRUCE MONNIN
Standard Correspondent
FORT RECOVERY — A young and improving Fort Recovery Lady
Indian squad took another step forward Tuesday night, knocking
off the Celina Lady Bulldogs 69-47 in a game that was much closer
than the final score indicated.
After leading just 26-24 at halftime, Fort Recovery outscored
Celina 43-23 the rest of the way to secure the victory. Much
of the Indians’ success was due to draining 8-of-16 shots
from three-point range in the game.
“Those shots came against their halfcourt trap, primarily,”
observed Fort Recovery coach Jeff Roessner. “The people
passing the ball found shooters with their feet set.”
The game started with Allison Hoying scoring the first four
points of the game. However, less than four minutes into the
game, she suffered a knee injury that kept her on the sidelines
the rest of the way.
Celina coach Jack Clouse was optimistic on her condition after
the game.
“I think she’s fine. She possibly could have played,
but I’m not going to mess with a knee,” noted Clouse.
After the injury, Fort Recovery outscored its adversaries 8-3
to take a 15-9 lead after the first stanza. The Indians had
a chance to stretch the early lead when a foul was called on
the Bulldogs with no time left in the quarter and the Celina
bench was subsequently assessed with a technical foul. However,
Fort Recovery missed all three free throws to remain ahead by
just six points.
The lead remained at six points for most of the second quarter
until two Kelli WIlliams free throws tied the game at 22-all.
Vicki Roessner immediately responded with a three-pointer for
Fort Recovery, and the Indians held on to take a 26-24 lead
into the locker room at the half.
The Celina pressure defense, which seemed to frustrate Fort
Recovery in the second quarter, yielded some transition three-pointers
for the Indians in the third quarter, as Joscie Kaup sank one
and Holly Stein added two of her own. Stein’s last shot
increased the Fort Recovery lead to 44-33 after three quarters.
“You can go with it (pressure) so long, then it’s
not as effective,” commented Clouse. “We had to
stay in it quite awhile, and stay in a zone because of foul
trouble.”
The fourth quarter saw the Indiasn lead remain fairly constant
until the last three minutes of the game. Then Fort Recovery
closed it out from the charity stripe, sinking 12-of-14 foul
shots down the stretch.
Fort Recovery spread the scoring out fairly evenly among seven
players, as Stein scored the most with 14 points and seventh
highest scorer Tiffany Gaerke added six points.
“That’s pretty balanced scoring,” commented
Roessner. “I’ll take that any day of the week. A
good team effort.”
Roessner was pleased with the overall team effort, but doesn’t
want his team to rest on its laurels.
“I think that we’ve taken a step in virtually every
game we’ve played. Our goal is to keep doing that from
now until tournament time and then hopefully keep doing the
same thing there,” explained Roessner. “You know
what? This team is good. But good teams lose championships.
Great teams win them. So I don’t want to just be good.
We’ve got to keep taking some more steps.”
Fort Recovery’s record rises to 12-6 and next plays at
Versailles on Thursday night. Celina’s overall record
falls to 11-8. The Bulldogs also return to action Thursday when
they travel to Wapakoneta for their last WBL game of the season.
The JV contest was also won by Fort Recovery by a score of 42-21.
Julie Link was the only double digit scorer, scoring 10 points
for the Indians.
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