“It’s a chance for local kids to play on a national stage…Both teams are undefeated and ranked in their divisions. We’d like to say we are geniuses, but we’re not. We got lucky…A lot of these schools are used to playing their own kind because of leagues and geography. Half the fun of this event is playing somebody that there is no chance of playing any other time. “ Eric Horstman, President and Founder
By Tim Langevin
KETTERING – It wasn’t a thriller. No spectacular freeze-frames. Just two well-disciplined teams grinding it out in a strategic, half-court mode won by Walnut Ridge 46-34.
Reality trumped intrigue, but it was a win-win situation for both teams. Walnut Ridge earned the hard-fought win to remain unbeaten at 10-0. The Scots saved face amongst fellow Columbus City-Leaguers and proved they are worthy of their state ranking. The high-flying Scots (70 ppg) displayed that they can play at any given tempo.
“We played with a lot of poise,” said Walnut Ridge coach Jason Bates. “Fort Recovery played a tough zone, but we had some great possessions. We held the ball some 40 seconds before shooting. Everybody touched the ball and our movement was good.”
Give credit to Fort Recovery. They hung tough and dictated the tempo with a synchronized zone matchup defense. And the Indians didn’t get blown out by 30 points, like so many other Ridge opponents. Recovery’s play said something: Hello Berlin Hiland.
Fort Recovery coach Brian Patch said, “Most people didn’t give us a chance. We proved we’re a pretty good team.”
The first quarter was tightly contested with four lead changes and three ties. Wade Gelhaus pounded inside with four points and sophomore Elijah Kahlig triggered a three to give the Indians an 8-6 lead.
Ridge 6-10 post player Alassane Kah was insane with eight points. He scored from mid-range, inside, and converted a steal into a slam dunk to knot the score 8-8 at the midway point. Kah finished with 11 points and seven rebounds.
Jared Kahlig was fouled driving down the lane and converted 1-of-2 foul shots to reclaim a slim 9-8 margin. Recovery’s game plan was on course. The defense sagged when the ball went inside and recovered quickly on the perimeter.
Until…Until Isaiah Brooks entered the game. The 5-8 senior point guard sparked an 8-0 streak, Ridge’s only serious scoring run of the game, with back-to-back bombs. Just like that, the Scots led 16-9. Elijah Kahlig answered with a floater down the lane at the buzzer to cut the lead 16-11.
Bates said, “It was a great game for Brooks. It was good to see him get hot. We need for him to get hot against the zone. When he is on, it spreads the defense and opens things up for our big men.”
Gelhaus commented, “Number three (Brooks) really hurt us. We didn’t want to give them the paint so we played off their guards. He surprised us.”
Patched summed Brooks performance best, “Take him (Brooks) away and we could’ve been right in it.”
Walnut Ridge outscored Fort Recovery 10-5 in the second quarter as sloppy play and cold shooting, not defense, dictated the tempo. Gelhaus, Fort Recovery’s “Mr. Do-Everything”, pounded inside, made the bucket, and converted the three-point-play as the Indians clawed back 18-14.
An impressive showing by the 6-6 junior considering he was going up against Kah, 6-9 Malik Dime, and 6-7 Kai Turner. Gelhaus finished the afternoon with 14 points, 13 rebounds, two blocked shots, and two steals.
Gelhaus said, “It was fun. Awesome feeling playing against a quality D-I team like Walnut Ridge in this arena. Hopefully we will be back (D-IV Regionals). We need to keep the effort and play hard and hopefully get to state.”
Brooks banged home two more threes to give Ridge a 26-16 halftime advantage. Playing a reserve role this game, Brooks canned 4-of-5 threes for 12 points, all in the first half. He entered the contest averaging 4.6 points per game. It’s not uncommon for Bates to switch his starting line-up from game to game.
“We have starters, but everybody gets pretty equal playing time,” Bates said. “The end result, we want to win. It’s nice to have 11 unselfish players…Each year we’ve grown. Games like this and city league competition makes us better. We try to take every step and not skip any steps to get better…All the kids buy into the program.”
Kah and Brooks accounted for 20 of the Scots’ 26 points and Gelhaus and Elijah Kahlig contributed 14 of Recovery’s 16 points.
Despite the low score, this matchup was a thing of beauty, clinic-like. Both teams played defense with a sense of urgency, Walnut Ridge a man and Fort Recovery a zone. Both offenses exercised the inside-outside approach with patience. Don’t see it that much at the high school level.
Bates stressed, “We played with patience. It was a good win. We like to speed it up, but it wasn’t there. We can play against any zone. This team has a lot of interchangeable parts.”
To add to the intrigue, the first half was a tale of two crowds. The red side was waiting for a ballistic scoring run and the purple side was waiting for a rain of threes. Neither happened.
The half-court war continued through the third quarter. Fort Recovery scored eight points and Walnut Ridge managed six points to cling to a 32-24 lead.
Jared Kahlig scored on a driving lay-up and then Kah answered with a stickback. Gelhaus made two free throws, Kahlig one foul shot, and Elijah Kahlig drained his second three of the game as Recovery reduced the lead 28-24 with 2:02 left in the stanza.
The momentum shifted and there was a hmmm noise inside Trent Arena. Not unusual for a venue like this. Crowds remain fairly by-stander, watching in awe, an occasional slam-dunk roar. No cheerleaders. No pep bands.
As methodical as Recovery worked to slice the lead, Grant Harris quickly expanded the lead with two fastbreak lay-ups off turnovers to end the threat. Harris finished the game with six points. Last year, Harris led Harvest Prep to the D-IV state finals, averaging 19.6 points per game.
Recovery would get no closer than six points the rest of the way. Sophomore Ben Dilworth made 1-of-2 free throws after making a steal and then was fouled driving to the basket to make it 35-29. Jason Pottkotter canned 2-of-2 throws to make it 38-32. And then Gelhaus swished a running hook in the paint to make it 40-34 with 56.1 left in the contest.
Each time Recovery cut the lead, Ridge responded with free throws by Rob Wheelwright (1-3), Fred Hardgrove (2-4), and Adam McCall (2-4). The Scots were 8-of-16 from the line in the final quarter. They didn’t shoot any foul shots the first three quarters. Fort Recovery made 9-of-11 foul shots in the fourth quarter.
Quiet most of the game, Roy Alexander, Ridge’s leading scorer at 12.4 points per game, capped the scoring with a slam dunk and a slashing lay-up to end the game.
He said, “A lot of teams play us 2-3 zone because we cause matchup problems. We practice against zone defenses all the time. We just went out and executed and made the necessary adjustments.”
Fort Recovery converted 16-of-23 free throws for 69.6 per cent. They shot 21.6 per cent from the field (8-37) and made 2-of-10 from three-point-land. Recovery entered the game averaging 52 per cent from the field and Elijah Kahlig entered the game shooting 56 per cent from beyond the arc. This game he was 2-of-8 from long range.
Walnut Ridge shot 43.6 per cent from the field, 4-of-8 from three-point range. In all, nine Ridge players scored.
The rebounds and turnovers were pretty even. Ridge outrebounded Recovery 27-26 and won the turnover battle 13-15. The difference-maker was bench points. The Scots outscored the Indians 24-0.
Alexander scored five points. Wheelwright added three with three blocks and Dime scored three points on a nifty three-point-play to start the fourth quarter.
Elijah Kahlig finished with 10 points and cousin Jared Kahlig added seven points. Pottkotter and Dilworth rounded out the scoring with two and one points, respectively.
Patch concluded, “I thought the kids played well. They executed the game plan we prepared on the bus ride down…What our kids did today was promising. We hurt ourselves at times, but overall it was a good game for us…For us to win, we had to shoot better and make fewer turnovers. It was a fun game.”
And so, both teams did what they were supposed to do. Walnut Ridge won and Fort Recovery kept it interesting.
Side Note: One of Bates assistant coaches is Eddie Zoog. He played on the 1971 Walnut Ridge State Championship team. Bates said, “He’s my good-luck charm. We haven’t lost a game since he joined our staff. To have him around is major. The kids love and respect him.”
Zoog responded in a soft-spoken manner, “It’s more than basketball. Study tables, videos, and other things I choose not to comment on. I’m just learning their system before I can augment anything. It’s all positive, but this team has a long way to go. I want to reserve judgement on how far this team can go.”
