Fort Frye’s Clayton Miller, left, holds the ball as Waterford’s Finn Pennock defends during Tuesday’s game at the Harry Cooper Annex. (Photo by Patricia Miller)

WATERFORD — The Waterford Wildcats broke open a close game in the second half and went on to down the Fort Frye Cadets 42-26 Tuesday evening at the Cooper Annex in the final tune-up for both teams before tournament play begins on Friday.

The Wildcats used an outstanding defensive performance combined with a patient offense to improve to 10-11 on the season and gain a measure of revenge after losing to Waterford (45-33) back in December.

The Cadets came into the game riding a four-game winning streak in which they averaged 57 points but the Wildcat defense smothered them all game long especially in the second half.

Fort Frye managed just two field goals and seven points total in the second half of play.

“Our guys were just stellar on defense tonight. We did our jobs, the next man up held and at times we were seeing two or three levels of help,” said third-year Wildcat head coach D.J. Cunningham. “I’m not surprised because our guys have done that several other times before this year but our guys just came out ready to play tonight.”

Waterford’s Dylan McCutcheon (24) goes up for a basket as Fort Frye’s Wyatt Duskey (10) defends during Tuesday’s game at the Harry Cooper Annex. (Photo by Patricia Miller)

Waterford led for almost all of the first half as they won the first period 13-8 and held a 19-12 lead midway through the second quarter.

Sophomore Gavin Hiener scored the first six Waterford points of the second quarter, including a pair of buckets off of offensive rebounds.

The Cadets made a run down the stretch of the opening half and scored the final seven points of the second quarter to tie the score at 19-19 at the intermission.

Junior Kainan Bradford accounted for five of those points while Chatum Courson added the other two.

“We responded there in the first half and thought we would carry that momentum over into the second but we didn’t,” said Fort Frye coach Eric Henniger. “We’ve got to do a better job on offense. We just weren’t able to execute the way we need to in the second half.”

Fort Frye had plans to carrying that momentum over into the second half but that would be anything but the case as the Wildcats would allow them just two points in the third quarter.

Waterford senior Cole Sparling-Ponchak and Fort Frye senior Clayton Miller traded baskets to open the second half but Miller’s two-pointer would be the last Cadet score in 12 minutes of game time.

The Wildcats would jump back in front on a three-pointer by Sparling-Ponchak and after sophomore Finn Pennock connected on one-of-two from the free throw line, Hiener knocked down a triple to give the home team a seven-point cushion heading to the final quarter.

Pennock came up with a huge play to open the scoring in the fourth quarter when after Fort Frye’s Treven Nicholson grabbed a rebound off of a Wildcat miss, Pennock stripped the ball away from him under the basket and put the ball back up and in drawing a foul in the process to turn it into a three-point play.

The Waterford sophomore followed that play up with another field goal and a pair of shots at the charity stripe as the Wildcats began to open things up.

Fellow sophomore Tyson Franchino got in on the act by grabbing yet another offensive rebound and putting it back in to extend the lead to 37-21 with less than four minutes to play and cap a 16-0 run.

“We did a great job of coming out and setting the tone in the second half and sticking to it the rest of the game,” said Cunningham. “Two of the keys for us tonight were composure and discipline. We know it’s a rivalry game that gets chippy at times and we never lost our composure and at the same time we were very disciplined running our offense and didn’t settle for anything but a great shot.”

From there on the Wildcats would take care of business at the foul line as they made good on 10-of-12 freebies down the stretch to pull away to the win and improve their season mark to 10-11.

Pennock led the way for the Wildcats with 13 points and nine rebounds while Heiner added 11 points and seven rebounds.

Hiener and Pennock headline a very strong Wildcat sophomore class that has the future of Waterford basketball looking bright.

“Those are two exceptional young men that just come in and get after it everyday looking to get better,” said Cunningham of Pennock and Hiener. “They are also looking to make everyone around them better and tonight they were clicking for us and doing the things they do well but not trying to do too much.”

Sparling-Ponchak also reached double figures with 10 points and six boards for the white and green.

Courson was the only Cadet to reach double figures as he ended with an even dozen while Bradford added nine.

The loss dropped the Cadets record to 9-13 with a trip to Malvern next on the agenda Friday night to open district tournament play.

Henniger realizes his team will need to be much better on the offensive side of the ball to have any chance at stealing a victory.

“Obviously when you only score seven points in a half you aren’t going to beat anybody, “said Henniger. “We always look forward to the postseason and we have a very tough match-up in Malvern and we will have to go up there and play perfect to beat them.”

The Wildcats will also open tournament play Friday night when they travel to long-time TVC rival Eastern trying to avenge a pair of losses suffered to the Eagles in the regular season.

“We are going to enjoy this tonight but at five o’clock tomorrow we are going to get back to business,” said Cunningham. “The big show starts Friday and we are going to come in and get ready and see what kind of a run we can put together.”