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Fort Frye tops Harvest Prep for regional championship

By Jay W. Bennett 6 min read

PICKERINGTON -- Fort Frye's Ava Huffman knocked down her first two 3s, Ella Dowler followed with another and senior point Emmie Duskey double-doubled with game-highs of 16 points and 10 rebounds as the Cadets of veteran boss Dan Liedtke cut down the nets and advanced to the Final Four following a 43-29 Division VI regional final victory versus Harvest Prep here Saturday night at Pickerington North.

The 21-4 Cadets, who hit 5 of 12 from downtown in the first half, never trailed, led by as many as 16 in the second and watched the Warriors cut it to six late in the third before pulling away for the school's third ever trip to the state tournament.

"Everybody played their part big. Every one of these girls. I love them," said coach Liedtke, who got nine points and a game-high four assists from Dowler, eight points from Huffman along with five markers and seven rebounds by Aubrie Lang as well as five counters and eight caroms off the bench from Elle Casto.

Following the two triples from Huffman, Israelle Smith had a steal and a layup before Dowler's deep triple made it 9-2 at the 4:37 mark. Duskey's 3 made it 14-4 and the Cadets led 16-5 after one following two foul shots from Duskey.

"We definitely came out strong at the beginning of the game," admitted Duskey, who tied Warrior Mo'nae Gamble with a game-high three steals. "If we come out strong that leads to the rest of our game, but if we come out a little slow then that also leads.

"That was the key part to the day I feel like. No matter what team we play we are always smaller than them. We've learned pretty well to adapt to that and we just stuck to our game plan to get us through and executed it very well."

Despite the size differential, the Cadets held a commanding 39-24 edge on the glass and that included grabbing 18 offensive rebounds.

Casto was called into action after Haven Shilling picked up her third foul at 4:14 of the second.

"Haven got in foul trouble but it was great for Elle to step up. I mean only being a freshman and not having much varsity experience, let alone big games like this, she did a great job stepping up," added Duskey.

"It feels great. I mean I've always played up so me being the senior and playing down with all of them it means a lot to me. I know they all have my back and I'm not alone so it makes my job a lot easier being the only senior."

It was a rough second quarter for both teams as the scoreboard read 19-7 with 2:45 remaining in the half. Harvest Prep, which ended the campaign at 12-14 for head coach David Dennis, Sr., had two turnovers and was 1 of 6 while the Cadets were 1 of 9 with one turnover.

However, Fort Frye extended the lead to 23-7 following buckets by Casto and Dowler and the Warriors were behind 14 at the break following a runner by Jordyn Johnson, who came off the bench and had team-highs of 10 points and six rebounds.

Coach Liedtke's squad missed their first 11 shots in the third as Harvest Prep used a 10-2 spurt to make it a two-possession affair. Maliyah Lofton ended the run with a 3 and a floater as the Cadets' advantage was just six at 25-19 with 1:28 to go.

A Duskey reverse layup and a free throw from Casto with no time left on the clock allowed the Cadets to take an eight-point cushion into the fourth.

Fort Frye opened the fourth with a Duskey steal and her assist to Huffman. Duskey then followed with a three-point play to make it 33-20 as the Warriors eventually trailed by 17 at 39-22 with 2:21 left.

"It was great," Huffman said of the experience and getting to go to state. "I think it helped our energy overall and it was just awesome. I think I just started the energy and it just lasted the whole time. Our energy was great this game. It was really high and I think that's what helped us.

"I think we all knew in the back of our heads. Like coach is telling us third quarter, third quarter, third quarter so we were like we have to get it. We stuck our energy in there and kept tight the whole time."

Huffman is also glad to have a teammate and leader like Duskey.

"She's a great role model for all of us and I think it just overall helps us sophomores to look up to someone who is so amazing and just a great basketball player," Huffman added. "I honestly didn't think I was going to get here, but it's amazing to get here.

"Coach helped our confidence this whole season and it was great to get to this point, and we all kind of knew we had a roadway to get to here and we took it."

Fort Frye, which forced 12 turnovers but had a baker's dozen, drew a charge in every quarter. Shilling had one each in the first half while Dowler took one in the third and Duskey one in the fourth.

"We had one day to prepare for this but the thing about it is the way I run my system nothing changes as far as on the defensive end," explained coach Liedtke. "Yeah, I mean we do our matchups and have to find the best matchups we can find. When we were in 25 defense we play it out and we go after the teams more to the outside. When we play 10 defense against big, fast and quick teams we pack it in more.

"We don't get out there and let them get around us and the girls played it right to the T. It (the season) was a work in progress as the summer went on. I mean it didn't start off very good, but then connections started being made and things came together. I had a good feeling we'd have a good team. I knew that if this chemistry would be right for us it could be a big year. We had a good start to the start of our season and we played a lot of good competition. It paid off."

Fort Frye will take on Rootstown in the state semifinal at 7 p.m. Friday at Claymont High School.

Contact Jay Bennett at jbennett@newsandsentinel.com

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