Hardwood Heroes
Fort Frye Cadets hold off Waterford Wildcats in last seconds
By: Stephen Koroly
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Waterford, Ohio (WOUB) – This game was an absolute battle. Fort Frye held off the Wildcats in the end to come away with a tough 32-30 win.
Fort Frye came out the gate strong with some great defense. The Cadets were very comfortable defending anyone on the floor. Fort Frye ended the first quarter with a 12-5 lead.
The second quarter was a completely different story. The Wildcats settled in and took control in this quarter. Early fouls from the Cadets helped the Wildcats get acquire points from the foul line.
Kendall Surry converted through contact to tie the game. Then Avery Wagner had an offensive rebound to go along with a lay-in to take the lead at 14-12.
The first half ended with a close score of 15-13 with the Wildcats leading. Kendall Surry had an impressive first half with seven points and eight rebounds.
Cadets, Cadets, Cadets, was what occurred in the third. Fort Frye opened the second half with a couple of fastbreak scores. Fort Frye then quickly took a 10-point lead.
The Fort Frye defense continued to shine. The Cadets caused many shooting and turnover errors for the Wildcats. This paired with Avery Wagner being out due to foul trouble caused problems for Waterford.
Fort Frye provided their selves a nice cushion going into the fourth quarter with a lead of 28-19
Avery Wagner re-entered in the fourth quarter and had an instant impact getting to the line. Waterford then began playing some great defense. But some offensive miscues held them back for most of this final quarter.
Waterford came alive once again with 2:30 remaining. Fast break lay ups and free throws brought Waterford back into this game. The Wildcats defense had many steals in the final minutes.
Fort Frye then converted a free throw to go up four points with 52 seconds left. The Waterford Wildcats then came down and Avery Wagner hit a bank shot three with 30 seconds remaining.
This was the first three pointer of the night for the Wildcats. On the night, they shot 1-17 from behind the arc.
Fort Frye was then fouled and hit one shot out of two. With nine seconds remaining the Wildcats took the ball out from under the hoop and could not convert as time expired.
Avery Wagner led in scoring tonight with 14 points. With the loss, Waterford falls to 16-6. Looking forward to the playoffs, on February 15th Waterford will take on the winner of Southern vs Sciotoville.