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Saturday, 01 March 2008 |
By BRIAN SMITH
Sports Editor
WAPAKONETA — One, two, three.
Fort Recovery’s three best players walked to the bench fouled out in the fourth quarter , like chess pieces one-by-one captured and overtaken by the New Knoxville Rangers.
And with Clint Tobe, Greg Kahlig and Bobby Rammel on the bench, New Knoxville finally knew that the Indians were not going to make one last comeback.
New Knoxville (23-0) started every quarter with a strong move and finally forced the checkmate early in the fourth quarter in a 63-46 win over the Indians in the Division IV district final at Wapakoneta.
Brad Piehl scored 24 points for the Rangers. Austin Arnett and Tony Meyer each added 12 points.
Piehl’s most important points came early in the fourth quarter with his team in a dogfight.
He hit an eight-foot jumper, knocked down two free throws to extend the Ranger lead to double digits.
“He’s getting more touches,” Meyer said. “Last year he was Brad Piehl. Now he’s The Brad Piehl. He’s the man. He does everything for us. And as you saw in the fourth quarter, he just took over and scored points.”
Piehl’s ability to show up in big games shined through once again. While the 6-7 junior averaged 13.7 points per game in the regular season, he topped 20 in wins over Marion Local and Lima Shawnee.
“I think I just have a lot more confidence now,” Piehl said. “I’m the only big guy so I know I have to score inside. I think that helps me.”
“They started to go inside to Piehl and he hit some shots,” Fort Recovery coach Brian Patch said. “From there they began to spread it out. It helps when they have shooters on the outside. You can’t jam all the way. In the past this year we’ve been able to do that and take away a lot of post guys. Against them, we couldn’t do that and Piehl had a lot more room to move down in there.”
Piehl’s outburst gave New Knoxville the only lead that stood up all night.
The Rangers started the game on a 9-0 run and held a 21-10 lead after one quarter.
The Indians, as they would all night, made a comeback. A 12-4 run by Fort Recovery and a pair of Greg Kahlig baskets to end the period drew the score to within 29-28 at the half.
“Sometimes this team kind of relaxes a little bit,” Hegemier said. “If you let a team as good as Fort Recovery come back, they’re going to bite you. They bit us pretty hard.
“I thought our guys got tentative,” he said. “They went to the hole and we just didn’t stop them.”
New Knoxville slingshot back up by nine with an 8-0 run. Piehl scored six in a row during the run.
Fort Recovery tied the game at 39-39 and got to within 43-41 with less than a minute to go before Piehl tipped in a missed three-pointer with two seconds left in the third quarter.
As the Rangers pulled away in the fourth quarter, New Knoxville ran clock and knocked down free throws to seal the district title victory.
“We locked down on our defense and we started rebounding — which we didn’t do the whole game until the fourth quarter,” Meyer said.
“He’s really been a force in big games, “ Hegemier said. Piehl finished with 10 rebounds, five assists, two blocks and two steals.
The New Knoxville coach held up a pair of fingers to the crowd as he cut the final strand from the net, a celebration of two straight district titles.
“Two!,” he yelled out. “Two!”
The Rangers will face Houston on Tuesday at University of Dayton Arena in the regional semifinal at 6:15 p.m.
The Rangers shot 61 percent on the floor on 20-33 shooting, while Fort Recovery was limited to 40 percent.
New Knoxville beat Fort Recovery (18-5) for the second time this year. The Indians were hobbled in their first game without three-year starting point guard Toby Metzger and Bobby Rammel didn’t practice that week.
A more confident Indian team pestered the Rangers for over three quarters.
“These kids aren’t stupid,” Hegemier said. “They have good basketball minds. They knew the last time we played them, their point guard had just gotten hurt. We stole the ball and that was basically that. We knew that wasn’t going to be the case tonight.
Lockland and Cincinnati Seven Hills Upper square off in the nightcap at UD Arena on Tuesday. Lockland received the bid into the regional, even after losing to Dayton Jefferson in the district final game. The OHSAA found that Jefferson used an ineligible player this season and forced them to forfeit their district title.
New Knoxville’s match-up with Houston pits a former Shelby County League coach against a current one.
Hegemier and John Willoughby from Houston squared off while Hegemier coached Fort Loramie.
“I’ve coached a lot of years against John Willoughby,” Hegemier said. “We’ve yelled at each other a lot. I know him. He knows me.”
Houston played Fort Recovery this year. Houston prevailed 65-63 in double overtime over the Indians.
Houston features Dan Estes, the SCL Player of the Year, along with first team performer Justin Schwable.
NEW KNOXVILLE 63
FORT RECOVERY 46
FR 10 18 13 5 - 46
NK 21 8 16 18 - 63
New Knoxville
Austinn Arnett 4-4-12, Tony Meyer 3-4-12, Caleb Allen 4-0-8, Ryan VanderHorst 2-0-4, Brad Piehl 6-12-24, Austin Luck 1-0-3. Totals 20-20-63.
Fort Recovery
Tyler Jutte 1-1-3, Frank Thien 1-0-2, Bobby Rammel 5-4-14, Greg Kahlig 5-4-14, Brent Faller 0-1-1, Clint Tobe 5-0-12. Totals 17-7-46.
FR NK
Shooting 17-43 20-33
3-pt Shooting 5-15 3-7
FT Shooting 7-10 20-26
Rebounds 21 23
Offensive Rebounds 10 6
Turnovers 15 11
Pts. off Turnovers 7 20
Bench pts. 3 3
Steals 5 7
Assists 5 14
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Last Updated ( Thursday, 06 March 2008 )
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