Frontier’s Willow Smitley (44) handles the ball during Saturday’s district tournament game against Malvern at Hank Morus Gym. (Photo by Mike Morrison)

NEW MATAMORAS — Senior Kelsey Dye tossed in 17 points to lead three scorers in double figures Saturday afternoon as the Frontier Cougars advanced in tournament play with a 57-44 win over the Malvern Hornets at Hank Morus Gymnasium.

The Cougars broke open a close game with a great start to the second half and pulled away to notch their 14th win of the season and advance to the district semifinal on Wednesday night.

“I thought it was a really good defensive effort by all of the kids and a great bounce back game after we struggled the other night against Caldwell,” said Frontier head coach Mike Cisler, whose team opened up tournament play with a three-point win over Caldwell Wednesday. “I thought we shared the ball really well and just played really good team basketball.”

The Cougars won both the first and second quarter by identical 14-11 scores to take a 28-22 lead into the intermission.

Junior Anna Bowersock got the home team off to a great start when she scored the first five points of the game and later in the opening period sophomore Willow Smitley got in on the act by burying a pair of triples as the Cougars claimed the early lead.

Cisler thought that Smitley’s ability to shoot from the outside opened up a lot of opportunities for the Frontier offense.

“Willow (Smitley) is capable of shooting like that all the time and I was very proud of how she got us started,” said Cisler. “That helped us get out to a good start which was very important.”

The Cougars led by eight at one time in the first before Malvern closed the quarter out on 5-0 run capped by a 35-foot buzzer beater by guard Addy Mitchell.

Dye opened up the second quarter with a two-pointer before Malvern went on a 8-0 run to take their first lead of the game at 19-16..

Later in the quarter the two found themselves locked in a 22-22 tie before the Cougars closed out the half on a 6-0 run to take the six-point lead into the break.

Bowersock opened the run with a pair of free throws and ended it with a field goal while senior Alexis Livingston grabbed a rebound and put it back in for the other two.

The second half started just the same as the first with Bowersock having the hot hand as she made a pair of three-pointers as the Cougars took their first double-digit lead of the day.

Dye extended the lead to 15 when she scored an inside bucket on an assist from Smitley before splashing in a triple of her own.

The Hornets managed to trim the lead to 11 heading into the final quarter but would not be able to come any closer.

Dye came up with an outstanding individual effort on the first play of the final quarter when she had the ball stripped away from her by Malvern’s Ella Debo and chased her down from behind just in time to swat her layup out of bounds to prevent the score.

“Kelsey goes all out and she doesn’t quit and that was a great effort and a great play right there,’ said Cisler. “That’s why she is one of our leaders along with Anna Bowersock.”

The Cougars shot 26 free throws in the game and made 15 of them including four in a row by Smitley after she drew a foul and Malvern was also whistled for a technical foul.

In addition to her 17 points, Dye pulled down six rebounds, dished out three assists and came up with three steals on defense.

Bowersock finished with 16 points while Smitley added 13 points and a team-high eight rebounds.

Malvern, whose season comes to a close with a 13-10 record were paced by Debo with 17 and Katie Kuba with 10.

Frontier (14-6) knows their opponent will be a very good Strasburg-Franklin team on Wednesday in the District Semi-Final and will soon find out the location.

“They have 21 wins and are one of the top two seeds in the Eastern district so we will have our hands full,” said Cisler. “This was one of our goals to win these first two playoff games and have a shot at playing a great team with a shot to go to the District finals and we were able to do that today.”