COVINGTON – The Arcanum Lady Trojans advanced in Ohio High School Athletic Association Division VI tournament play with a hard-fought 33-30 win over the Fort Recovery Lady Indians of the Midwest Athletic Conference (MAC).
“You know the MAC is who the MAC is, but hats off to the WOAC in what these teams and the schools have been doing,” Arcanum girls coach and AD Abbey Moore said of WOAC teams Saturday tournament success. “The success we’ve had across the board in all sports — I guess I’m putting the AD hat on this one. It’s been a great league, and we ADs all get along well, and it’s fun to see these kids succeed. So to see our WOAC schools have some success today is great.”
Arcanum struck first with Josie Schwartz burying a 3-pointer for a 3-0 lead. Fort Recovery answered with a 5-3 advantage before Schwartz dialed up her second triple of the opening minutes to give the Lady Trojans a 6-5 edge with 5:56 remaining in the first quarter.
The Lady Indians pushed in front 10-6, but Arcanum closed the opening period on a 4-1 run to trail just 11-10 after one.
“They came out to play, and we were cold,” Moore said. “Josie struggled offensively tonight, but she started out on fire, knocking down some shots for us.”
Defense dominated the final three quarters.
Arcanum posted nine second-quarter points while limiting Fort Recovery to five, taking a 19-16 lead into the halftime break. Caroline Long powered the effort with six points in the period, while Clair Hein added three.
Fort Recovery edged the third quarter 9-8, trimming the Arcanum advantage to 27-25 heading into the final eight minutes. Matty Noe scored five in the period, and Long contributed four to keep the Lady Trojans in front.
The fourth quarter became a possession-by-possession battle.
Clinging to a 30-28 lead, Arcanum saw Fort Recovery convert a steal into a full-court layup to tie the game at 30-30 with 2:45 remaining.
After an Arcanum timeout with 33.8 seconds on the clock, Long delivered the decisive play — scoring at the rim with 22.4 seconds showing to give the Lady Trojans a 32-30 advantage. Moments later, Noe was fouled and calmly knocked down the back end of two free throws, extending the lead to 33-30 with 15.2 seconds left.
Fort Recovery could not get a clean look at a game-tying 3-pointer as the Arcanum defense held firm to secure the three-point win.
“The last couple defensive stops, Josie (Schwartz) came up big,” Moore said. “I told them you just have to score more points than them, and thankfully, we were able to do that. We made some big plays there at the end.”
Arcanum struggled at the charity stripe, converting 8-of-18 free throws (44.1 percent), while Fort Recovery finished 9-of-16 (56.2 percent).
Long led Arcanum and all scorers with 14 points, accounting for seven of the Lady Trojans’ eight two-point baskets. She finished 7-of-10 from inside the arc.
Arcanum now advances to face the West Liberty-Salem Lady Tigers on Tuesday, February 24, at Covington in a 7:30 p.m. contest.
“West Liberty, they’re tough playing in the Ohio Heritage Conference,” Moore said of the Lady Trojans’ next opponent. “I’ve seen them battle a few times this year, defeating Mechanicsburg in a big conference game. Ava Astorin is a great ball player. They have a lot of great players on this team, and inside presence and ability to shoot the ball makes them very dynamic.”
Moore also praised the strong Arcanum fan turnout that filled their side of the Covington gym.
“I love being here at Arcanum, and the people in this community are great,” Moore said. “Hats off to our community for coming out and supporting these girls. We’re going to need them back here on Tuesday.”
BOX SCORE:
ARCANUM 33, FORT RECOVERY 30
ARCANUM – C. Long 14, J. Schwartz 6, C. Hein 4, M. Noe 4, A. Paul 3, E. Flatter 1, D. Michael 1 – TOTALS 8 8-18 3 33
FORT RECOVERY – M. Schoenlein 9, C. Muhlenkamp 8, M. Huelskamp 6, P. Hart 5, E. Schmitz 2 – TOTALS 6 9-16 3 30
3-POINTERS
Arcanum 3 (J. Schwartz 2, A. Paul 1)
Fort Recovery 3 (M. Schoenlein 3)
SCORE by QUARTERS
10-09-08-06 33 Arcanum
11-05-09-05 30 Fort Recovery
