Warren cruises

Warriors take advantage of fast 36-7 start in win

VINCENT -- The Warren Warriors put on a defensive clinic in the first half of Friday night's matchup against Fort Frye, holding the Cadets to just seven points on the way to a 57-43 victory.

Fort Frye (13-2) attempted 21 shots in the first half and made just three. And when the Cadets missed, they didn't get many second chances, as they were outrebounded 28-8 in the first half and 46-22 overall.

"Great start," said Warren head coach Blane Maddox, whose team improved to 11-1. "We came out with a perfect half of defense. They were missing some shots but they weren't getting too many second shots. We took care of the ball pretty decent. Great first half."

Kelton Fogle's 3-pointer at the 6:48 mark in the first gave the Cadets a 3-0 advantage, their only lead of the game. Warren scored the next 14 points and led 16-5 after one.

Caleb Davis, Josh Welch and Dennis Pettey checked in to start the second quarter and provided quality minutes as Warren didn't miss a beat, outscoring Fort Frye 20-2 in the period. Warren led 36-7 at halftime, and Seth Dennis's turnaround 3-pointer off the glass at the buzzer put an exclamation point on a dominating first half.

"All three of them were solid," Maddox said of his trio off the bench. "We're getting solid play out of all eight guys.

"I thought Dennis (Pettey) did an excellent job. Caleb does a good job of relieving with some ball pressure and good defensive pressure. I thought Josh had a fantastic first half."

Fort Frye kept fighting and outscored Warren 36-21 in the second half, but the first half deficit was too much to overcome.

"They dominated the inside," said Fort Frye head coach Eric Henniger. "There wasn't really anything we could do about it. They were bigger and more physical than us. When you can't control the paint, or even come close to controlling the paint, you're not going to win. Obviously that was a big problem for us tonight."

Brayden Sallee led Warren with a 12-point, 12-rebound double-double. Kurt Taylor also double-doubled with 11 points and 12 boards. Welch and Dennis had nine points each, with Dennis contributing five assists, four rebounds and three steals. Jake Baumgard added eight points, four boards and three steals. Joel Chevalier chipped in four assists.

Warren previously defeated Fort Frye, 56-49, on Dec. 15 in Beverly.

"We talked rebounding and defense all week," Maddox explained. "We felt like when we played (Fort Frye) the first half (of the season), the reason we were having trouble getting the lead was because they were getting so many second shots. All of them did an excellent job of crashing the ball."

Fort Frye was paced by Nic Hart's 15 points, five rebounds and five steals. Thirteen of his points came in the second half.

"They showed a lot of heart coming back on us," Maddox said. "I was proud of the first half. I mean, you keep them to seven, that's a stellar defensive half."

Braden Medley and Kelton Fogle added six points each for the Cadets. Fort Frye finished 14 for 39 (35.9 percent) from the floor.

"They were making us run our offense too far out," Henniger said. "Our guys weren't playing physical enough and attacking the hoop. With everybody spread so far out you've got to have guys that are willing to drive the hoop, and we weren't. We were playing horizontally instead of vertically. You can't do that against an aggressive defense. You've got to attack it, and we weren't attacking it."

Henniger thinks the rebounding issues are correctable going forward.

"We've gotten away with playing other teams and just using our athleticism and getting rebounds," he said. "(Warren) exposed a weakness, something we've been talking about lately too, and they exposed it. That's what happens. You've just got to box out more."

The Cadets came into the game ranked eighth in Division III, and they play again Tuesday at Frontier. The Warriors, ranked seventh in D2, are right back in action Saturday at New Philadelphia.

Jordan Holland can be reached at jholland@mariettatimes.com.