Control their destiny: Key TSL win for Cadets over Tigers
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BEVERLY - Being by far the smallest school in the new Twin State League, Fort Frye head girls basketball Dan Liedtke knew his team was going to have to slay some giants to have a shot at claiming a title in the second year of league play.
Monday night at home the Cadets knocked off the Marietta Tigers 45-35 to notch their third win in nine days over either Marietta or Warren to put themselves in complete control of the division with just one game left to play.
After losing to the Tigers by 14 on the road in their TSL opener on Jan. 8th, Fort Frye has picked up four consecutive conference wins including an impressive performance Monday that puts them firmly in the driver seat.
"This team has went through a lot of hard times and worked so hard to get to where we are at so they deserved this win tonight," said Liedtke. "We've been taking them one game at a time and with our schedule we have to work so hard to win game by game so we can't look ahead."
The two teams played to a 9-9 tie after one period of play and tied once again 10-10 in the second quarter to go to the break locked up at 19-19.
Marietta junior standout Leigha Lauer pretty much single handily kept the Tigers in the game as she scored 13 points in the first half including three from behind the arc.
Lauer was about as efficient as you can get in the opening half as she scored her 13 points off of just five shots from the floor.
Marietta trailed by as many as seven in the second quarter but Lauer scored all 10 points in a 10-3 run that tied the game.
The Tigers sandwiched buckets by Lauer and fellow junior Alyssa Baker around a two-pointer by Fort Frye's Kianna O'Brien to give them a 23-22 lead early in the second half.
Liedtke has relied heavily on his freshman throughout the first half of the season and the experience they have gained is beginning to pay dividends as the Cadets head down the stretch.
Freshman Ella Dowler knocked down a triple and followed that up with a two-pointer off of an assist by fellow freshman Ava Huffman.
Baker cut the lead to a single point when she knocked down a triple of her own but Huffman matched her with one from long range to extend the Cadet lead to four.
"They have gained a lot of experience and I knew the more they got the better they would be down the stretch," said Liedtke of his young talent. "I was hoping that the experience of playing against good teams would pay off and they are playing with a lot of confidence now."
The Tigers quickly responded when Baker scored on a reverse lay-up and Lauer cleaned up an offensive rebound and put it back in to tie the game at 30-30.
Fort Frye regained the lead late in the third quarter on an Emmie Duskey free throw and minutes later Duskey drove the baseline for two more to give the Fort a 33-30 lead heading to the final eight minutes of action.
Dowler came up huge to start the final period when she knocked down her second 3-ball of the night and after a Maddie Hogue bucket for Marietta, Duskey and O'Brien scored back-to-back buckets to give the Cadets their biggest lead of the night at 40-32.
The effort and energy was there all night long for the Cadets and there was no better example than a hustling play made by O'Brien to help keep the Tigers from crawling back into the game.
Baker intercepted a pass near mid-court and looked like she was going to score an easy lay-up to make it a two-possession game but O'Brien chased her down from behind and knocked her shot out of bounds at the last second.
The Cadets defense managed to get a stop on the inbound pass and cashed in on the other end on a Duskey basket to pull ahead to a 10-point lead.
"That was a big play by Kianna (O'Brien) and that kind of effort is something our girls take a lot of pride in," said Liedtke. "That comes from reaching deep down in… we were missing that for a while but it is there now."
The Tigers managed to get it back to seven on a late three-pointer from Julia Tucker but that would be as close as they would get the rest of the way.
Rookies Dowler and Huffman led a very balanced Fort Frye scoring attack with 12 and 11 points, respectively, while O.Brien also chipped in 11 and Duskey nine.
The win improves the Cadets season mark to 13-4 and their league record to 4-1 with their conference final on tap for Thursday.
The Cadets will also celebrate senior night. A win over a Point Pleasant team that they beat on the road by 24 points on the 11th of January would clinch the conference championship.
Lauer led the Tigers with 17 points and seven boards while Baker added nine points and six steals.
Marietta head coach Ryan McClain had high praise for the Cadets and hopes to get his squad back on track Thursday night when they look to avenge an earlier season loss to arch-rival Warren.
"It's a tough one for sure, especially when you have a chance to come and take control in the TSL," said McClain whose team slips to 12-4 overall and 2-2 in the conference with the loss. "I thought our effort was there but our execution wasn't."
The Tigers will now shift their focus to getting back on track with tournament play a few short weeks away.
"We've just got to clean some things up and get back to doing the little things,"said McClain. "Our focus now is to get ready for Warren and avenge that loss and hopefully the girls come back with the right mindset and ready to go to work the next couple of days."