(3-27-20) In 1999 two brothers had a history making Ohio State Boys High School Basketball tournament. Chris Bihn, would take his Coldwater team to the Final game in D III, while younger brother Chuck led his Ft. Recovery team to the D IV title game. Although there is no official category for this, Chris the coach at Coldwater and brother Chuck the Ft. Recovery player, two brothers playing in two separate state final games (one a coach, one a player) has to be considered as a special day, possibly history making.
Div Home Visitor Score Div III *Coldwater (17-8) Cincinnati Madeira (24-1)68-61 Div III *Bedford Chanel (24-0) Beverly Fort Frye (24-2) 93-55 Div IV *Worthington Christian (22-3) Edgerton (21-4) 77-48 Div IV Berlin Hiland (25-1) *Fort Recovery (24-1) 68-55 FINALS Div III Coldwater (18-8) *Bedford Chanel (25-0) 72-54 Div IV *Worthington Christian (23-3) Fort Recovery (25-1) 95-90 3OT * - winning team
Coldwater would beat Cincinnati Maderia 68-61 in the D III semifinal game, while Ft, Recovery beat Berlin Hiland 68-55 in the D IV semifinal. Coldwater would lose in the D III title game to Bedford Chanel 72-54, while Ft. Recovery lost a 3OT heart-breaker to Worthington Christian 95-90, that game is the longest state championship in OHSAA boys basketball history.
In the win over Hiland, Bihn, a 2nd Team D IV All-Ohio selection, had a double-double scoring a career-high 31 points (would score 34 in title game) with 11 rebounds, including the Indians first 13 points.
“Bihn was unbelievable. We tried everything. We fronted him, we played behind him, we double and triple teamed him.
Bihn had help from 6-5 senior Clark May had 12 points and 6-2 senior Chris Guggenbiller added 10 points and both combined with Bihn to shoot 22-of-36 from the field for the game.
In a thisweeknews.com story about the game with Worthington Christian, they were the only team to score more than 64 points that season against Fort Recovery. During the game there were 17 lead changes and 16 ties. At the time the game produced state tournament records in scoring, field goals and 3-pointers. David Taylor, who was a starter, averaged four points a game but scored 17 against Fort Recovery. He went 5-for-6 from the 3-point line and added a pair of free throws in 29 minutes.
Worthington Christian Head Coach Ray Slagle
“I remember that Dan Weston went crazy when that big kid (Chuck Bihn) fouled out
because we had no answer for him.”
Bihn, a Junior, finished the game with 34 points, 65 for both state games, to lead the Indians.
Slagle said –
“I thought we lost that game a couple times. There were a lot of close misses
and makes. We should probably not have won that game.”
For Coldwater it was another unexpected trip to Columbus, after another successful football season, the Cavs started the season off with a slow start at 1-3. The Cavs would finish 5-3 in the MAC and in a 3-way tie for 2nd place. (Ft. Recovery won the MAC title going 7-1) They lost their lColdwaterst regular season game of the season to LCC 69-67, but came back in the Sectional opener to beat the same Thunderbirds 62-50 and that started their run to the Final 4.
Coldwater, who was not ranked all season, had a tough draw at state, they beat #2 Madeira in the semifinal game and would lose to #1 ranked Bedford Chanel in the title game. The other Final 4 D IV team Ft. Frye was ranked 14th in the final poll.
Related:
Coldwater did not have to play a MAC team during the tournament run, which didn’t hurt and it goes to shows you what the MAC produces year in and year out.
Related-
According to the midwestathleticconference.com both Bihn’s are in the conference all-time leading scorers list, Chris, a 1987 Ft. Recovery grad, is at 38th with 1,103 points and Chuck, a 2000 Indian alum, is at 54th with 1,060 points.
Stateline Sports Network 