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Fort Recovery's Grant Fortkamp (11) goes up for a shot against New Bremen.
FORT RECOVERY - When all but one of your players score on the night, it is a good night for your team. New Bremen lived that fate, as seven of the eight players got on the scoresheet and the Cardinals rolled over Fort Recovery 52-38 at the Fort Site Fieldhouse to get MAC win No. 1.
New Bremen (7-3) started hot and opened the scoring with a 3-pointer from Wyatt Weidner near the top of the key. The sophomore added two more to the total after converting on a transition layup after a miss from the Indians.
"Every game we say our defense will start our offense," Cardinals' coach Cory Stephens said. "I think that's what happened early. We got a lot of runouts and transition points."
90 seconds was all Fort Recovery coach Bob Leverette needed to see, as he called a timeout in an effort to get more effort from his squad.
"That's been our issue the last three games," Leverette said of the slow start. "We're not coming out ready to go, and I thought I'd get a timeout quicker than I did the last two nights."
While the Indians eventually got on the board on a shot from Hudson Overman, turnovers on both ends of the make stalled momentum. New Bremen was all too happy to take advantage of the mistakes, and took a 13-6 lead into the first break.
Fort Recovery's Hudson Overman (21) tries to shoot against New Bremen's Gavin Quellhorst.
Weidner led the Cardinals with five points in the first, while Overman's four paced the Indians. New Bremen owned an 11-8 advantage in shots taken, due to the miscues on the part of Fort Recovery.
The second quarter began with a pair of misses and turnovers by both squads over a two minute stretch. A layup from Weidner gave him seven points, and another timeout was called by Fort Recovery with the score at 15-6 at the 6:15 mark.
After a loud "meeting" in the huddle, Fort Recovery scored the next three points to cut the deficit. Brody Barga found the scoresheet on a turnaround jumper, while Grant Fortkamp's foul shot made it a 15-9 game.
An and-one opportunity on the other end was missed by Jaylen Powell, but the Cardinals were not fazed. Powell cashed in a floater to push the margin to 10, and a layup from Gavin Quellhorst made it an even dozen. It grew to 25-11 by the end of the half, with Fort Recovery searching for offense.
Barga led the Indians with six points at the half, while New Bremen saw four players make multiple field-goals to aid the effort. Weidner led the group with nine points, Dicke and Powell had five, while Quellhorst added four.
New Bremen's Gavin Dicke (3) shoots over Fort Recovery's Brody Barga (5).
Opening the third quarter with a Dicke layup was the dream start for the Cardinals. The 27-11 score stayed right there for minutes, as both teams struggled finding open shots.
Barga got the Indians on the board with 5:15 left in the third, but Aaron Wuebker responded quickly for New Bremen. After a Cardinal's timeout, Fort Recovery's bench was unloaded.
Dylan Klenke, Braylon Dilworth, Douglas Bihn, Brady Evers and Carter Fortkamp checked into the game for a Fort Recovery team looking for any sort of spark. While the score was not impacted, the effort level throughout changed.
Charges were taken, rebounds were grabbed, but points were still tough to come by. Seven turnovers by the Indians brought their team total to 18, while the Bremen lead sat at 34-18 by the time the buzzer went. Bihn was the only one of the five to make a field goal, while Carter Fortkamp added one point from the line.
"Our effort is not very good right now from some certain guys and I had to bench some guysto get some other guys in the game who worked their butt off in practice." Leverette said.
Fort Recovery's fourth quarter saw the team score 20 points, but the deficit remained too large to overcome. New Bremen slowed the game down and rose out a few tough moments to comfortably take the contest. The Cardinals were led by Dicke's and Weidner's 15 points, while Powell chipped in nine.
"Gavin is a two-year starter, we know what we're going to get out of him. His effort is great in practice and in games," Stephens said. "Even Wyatt, who's only a sophomore, first time playing varsity this year, he's really bought into his role."
The Cardinals will look to keep the momentum up when they take on Arcanum at the Nest tonight. For Fort Recovery, the loss drops them to 6-4 on the year and 1-1 in the MAC, and they will look to rebound at home against Bradford tonight.
