Jay girls stay perfect — barely

Published:  Friday, February 2, 2007 (1 year, 6 months ago)
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FORT RECOVERY — The Fort Site Fieldhouse in Fort Recovery was a perfect environment for a riveting girls basketball game Thursday night: electric and loud.

Beginning with the St. John’s students tailgating before the game to the “Thunder Stix” balloons the Fort Recovery youngsters were employing, it had a tournament-like atmosphere.

Nothing came easily for either team as the Lady Blue Jays emerged unscathed with a hard-fought 46-44 Midwest Athletic Conference squeaker that secured at least a title tie for the visitors (16-0, 7-0 MAC).

Both coaches pointed to the atmosphere as being what high school basketball is all about.

“What a great environment this was. It was a great preparation for the tournament,” St. John’s coach Dan J. Grothouse marveled. “You can’t say enough about that. It was a tremendous atmosphere to play in.”

Lady Indian coach Jeff Rossner concurred.

“I talked with Coach Grothouse before the game and we agreed that this is why you play and coach the game,” he explained. “It’s a pleasure to play St. John’s because they do it the right way. One of the officials told me late in the game that he’d never seen so many classy players, coaches and fans, even in disagreement.”

As one might expect between a matchup involving the fourth-ranked (Division III) Blue Jays and the third-ranked (D-IV) Indians, the biggest margin all night was six by either team.

The stats showed the closeness of the battle: 16-of-37 for the Jays (7-of-20 from deep) for 43.2 percent; 24 caroms (8 offensive); 14 turnovers and 17 fouls. Fort Recovery (14-3, 5-2 MAC) canned 14-of-36 shots (3-of-11 downtown) for 38.9 percent; secured 26 boards (8 offensive) and added 16 errors and 18 fouls.

Thus, the Jays — after a 10-0 spurt late in the third — led 36-31 entering the finale. The Indians clawed to stay close, helped by 5-of-11 free-throw shooting by the Jays (7-of-17 overall for 41.2 percent). The Jays, with team-high scorer Brittany Pohlman (10 markers) on the bench with her fifth foul at the 3:09 mark, led 45-40 on 1-of-2 singles by Kim Miller (9 markers, 8 caroms, 3 assists) with 40 ticks left.

Tiffany Gaerke (10 boards) hit a short shot for the hosts, with Sarah Clark hitting 1-of-2 tosses for a 46-42 edge. Tori Recker (5 boards) missed two free throws with 18.8 ticks to go and Sara Fortkamp hit a putback with 10 seconds remaining. Recovery took its final timeout; when the Jays couldn’t get the ball inbounds, they used their final stoppage. On the inbounds, a wild scramble ensued, resulting in a jump ball to the hosts with 2.8 ticks remaining. They got the ball to Gaerke on a curl but her 10-footer from the left side was off as time expired.

“We did just enough to hang on. We didn’t shoot well or hit our free throws but we found a way to win,” Grothouse continued. “We struggled with winning close games last year; this year, we seem to be finding ways to win. That’s the mark of a growing team.”

Roessner liked his last play.

“We got a nice shot out of that; we just didn’t hit it. They made one more play than we did,” he said.

The Jays started off cold (2-of-14, 1-of-10 3s) as Recovery hardly allowed them to breathe and forced them almost exclusively to shoot over the top. Still, the St. John’s defense did its part to only trail 9-6 on a Gaerke toss with 10.1 seconds showing.

The Jays heated up some in the second period (6-of-9), with Pohlman’s six leading the way. With both teams fighting foul trouble, the Jays had surged to a 19-16 edge when Stein hit a 3 from the top of the key — her 1,000th point — and added a free throw with 3.7 ticks to go. However, Pohlman’s 10-foot runner from the right side settled in off the glass as time expired to put the Jays up 21-20.

“The game started as you’d expect: tough defense, the offenses not getting much going. We got things going a bit more in the second quarter,” Grothouse added. “Stein’s 4-point play seemed to give them momentum and then Britt’s shot gives it back. The second half was just a battle. There was nothing easy; you had to earn everything.”

There were four lead changes in the third, with Recovery having the night’s largest spread — 31-25 — at 3:47. The Jays then went on their 10-0 spurt — with four girls scoring — to secure a 36-31 margin on an NBA bomb from the right wing by Laura German (9 markers) with 26 ticks to go.

St. John’s goes for the outright MAC title at home Thursday versus Coldwater. Fort Recovery is at Celina Tuesday.

Lindsy Reindel put back a missed free throw with 9.1 seconds remaining and Nicole Pottkotter missed a potential tying 3 to give the JV Jays a 34-31 victory.

Reindel netted 13 for the visitors (13-3, 6-1), while Chelsey Leuthold countered with eight for the hosts (11-6).

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