A layup from junior Jayden Thomas brought the Lions (22-2) within 26-24 early in the third quarter, but Fort Recovery junior forward Breaker Jutte scored inside the paint kick-starting a 9-0 run and helping the Indians (15-10) lead by 20 points entering the fourth.
“We came into this game with a lot of respect for them and their schedule this year. I mean, they’ve been preparing for the tournament all year with that schedule and that conference, and so we knew it wasn’t going to be an easy game regardless of their record and ours,” Emmanuel Christian coach Nick Morgan said. “When their big guys are doing that and we’re not hitting our shots, it’s tough to stay in the game.”
Jutte finished with 19 points and Indians sophomore forward Hudson Overman scored 16.
“We thought that we had mismatches offensively, that they would have to guard us with our size, so if we didn’t get a leak out or something quick, we wanted to spread them out and find those mismatches,” Fort Recovery coach Bob Leverette said. “I felt like we really executed that.”
Lions senior Nate Hudson led Emmanuel Christian with 20 points.
The Lions broke the previous school record against Twin Valley South in the district semifinal and won 22 consecutive games after dropping the season opener to D-VII top-seed Cedarville.
“I’m about to go in there and remind them why they’re so sad, and they’re only sad because it was a special year and they don’t want it to end,” Morgan said. “Credit to our fans. We’re a small school. I think there’s 30, 40 people in each graduating class, and the support that we’ve gotten from our community, it’s been a really fun year, and I just hope that we’re not ending on a bad note. It’s just our season was going to end someday. We didn’t know it would be today though.”
Fort Recovery will advance to Tuesday’s regional semifinal at Vandalia-Butler High School against top-seed Marion Local.
“It just feels good,” Fort Recovery coach Bob Leverette said. “Long season, lot of good battles. We felt we were pretty battle-tested coming into this game, so that gave us some confidence. Just excited, pumped up for the guys. We spent a lot of time these last couple years getting better skill-wise and it’s starting to show, so reaping the benefits.”
Troy Christian wins third district final in four years
Junior forward Noah Fecher finished with 17 points and the second-seeded Eagles clinched their third district championship in four years after beating No. 2 seed Deer Park 60-45 earlier on Friday night.
Troy Christian trailed 17-12 after the first quarter but surged ahead using a 12-0 run to start the second.
Fecher had nine points by halftime and scored eight in the fourth quarter. The Wildcats drew within eight twice in the final period but a pair of Fecher 3s stretched Troy Christian’s lead back to double digits.
“I think what I really liked was that our kids didn’t panic,” Troy Christian coach Ray Zawadzki said. “They stayed with the game plan. We actually switched out of the zone and went man to man and we were able to play man for the last three quarters.”
Troy Christian moves on to the regional semifinal against either top-seeded Oyler or fellow No. 1 seed Tri-Village, which play Saturday at 2 p.m. from Middletown High School.
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