RIVER SOPHOMORE Ty Long prepares to go up for a shot as Fort Frye’s Owen Brown defends during the second quarter of Friday’s game inside the R.L. Potts Gymnasium at River High School. Long scored 18 to lead the Pilots, but they fell to the Cadets, 62-50.

HANNIBAL — Upon looking at the statistics, it didn’t take River head coach Mark Romick long to figure out exactly where his Pilots undoing occurred Friday night in a 62-50 loss to highly regarded Fort Frye.

The veteran head coach pointed out the 19 turnovers his team committed and the 4-of-12 effort from the foul line that were simply too much to overcome against any team, let alone one that’s been ranked in the state of Ohio for much of the season in Division III.

Compounding matters for the Pilots was after they closed the third quarter on an 11-1 run to knot the game at 40, they proceeded to wilt against the Cadets stifling pressure, turning it over seven times in the period and they cashed in on just 1-of-7 from the line.

“When you do those things in the fourth quarter, the game really shortens,” Romick said. “Fort Frye has a lot of seniors playing and they know how to take care of the basketball, so the opportunities to score just aren’t there. The difference in the game was Fort Frye made foul shots, took care of the ball and at inopportune times, we didn’t make plays. We gave up possessions against a good team.”

The Cadets, who are now 16-2 on the season and will close out the regular portion of the campaign against West Muskingum on Tuesday, got production from their veteran leaders when they needed it most.

After the Pilots put forth that run to end the third, the Cadets didn’t blink. Taking advantage of the aforementioned River miscues, Fort Frye opened the fourth on an 11-2 run, which was fueled by talented senior Nic Hart.

“I thought we were in a really good flow at the end of the third and going into the fourth quarter,” Romick said. “We had momentum and lost it at the foul line. We went to the foul line, literally, four possessions in a row and got nothing from it, so it is what it is.”

Hart, who deferred to his teammates for much of the game, became more offensive-minded in the fourth, scoring eight of his 13. Included were the first six Cadets points of the fourth.

Sophomore Brody Lollathin snapped the Pilot free throw woes by finally converting one-of-two and he also scored by going to the basket to bring River within six at 51-45.

Again, however, Fort Frye was unfazed.

“We went to the full-court press in the second half to kind of get more energy out of our guys,” Fort Frye head coach Eric Henniger said. “I think it kind of wore both teams down, but it was a good, team effort in the fourth. Honestly, before that, we weren’t doing a lot of good things. We stepped up our defense, which helped our struggling offense.”

The Cadets actually stretched the lead out to as many as 14 in the fourth.

Along with Hart’s scoring, classmate Kelton Fogle was impressive, too. He led all scorers in the game with 22 points. He got his team going with eight in the first and then was the beneficiary of several nice passes from Hart and scored seven in the fourth.

“We look to Nic to make plays, especially in a tight game,” Henniger said. “He’s one of those guys who can get going really quick. He got that first bucket in the fourth quarter, so we went back to him the next couple of possessions, too. It worked because he really got going.”

While Fogle and Hart were impressive, they weren’t alone. Owen Brown tallied 14, while Luke Huffman added 10. The Cadets, who continue to adjust to playing without key substitute Brian Adkins, got nary a point from their bench.

River, meanwhile, was led by sophomore standout Ty Long, who pumped in 18 points. Lollathin finished with 10.

The loss drops the Pilots to a deceiving 11-8. They’ve dropped two straight, but have played a gauntlet of a schedule, especially of late.

“We just played the number two seed in Division II (Steubenville) on Wednesday, the number one seed in Division III (Friday) and earlier this season we played the number one seed in Division IV (Malvern) and we’ve played a team with a Division I signee (Harrison Central), and we’re playing with all of them,” Romick said.

The Pilots road gets no easier as they close the regular season with a pair next week. They visit Union Local on Tuesday and welcome St. Clairsville on Wednesday.