Photo by Nick Henthorn Wheeling Central’s Erin Maxwell goes up for a shot inside Monday against Fort Frye during the Maroon Knights’ home game against the Cadets. Maxwell finished with 14 points and eight rebounds.

WHEELING — In the first half, the Fort Frye Cadets set the tone; in the second half, they survived the storm.

The visiting Cadets held off a determined second-half comeback by the Wheeling Central Maroon Knights to bag a 52-44 victory on Monday on Coach Skip Prosser Court, helped by a ferocious first-half defensive effort and clutch fourth-quarters from juniors Ava Huffman and Ella Dowler.

Fort Frye never trailed Monday, leading 9-6 after a first quarter that saw both teams struggle to find a rhythm offensively. While the Cadets had some hard-luck misses right around the basket, their defense was wrecking havoc on the other end. Fort Frye forced nine turnovers in the first quarter alone– 15 in the first half– as it seemed like the visitors were playing with an extra defender on the court on many a Maroon Knight possession.

“I thought our defense was outstanding tonight,” Fort Frye head coach Cathy Borich said.

“We had more turnovers than we usually do as well, but our defense fortunately was able to make them turn the ball over and we got some stops. I don’t think they really had too many easy looks at the basket this evening.”

Elle Casto had five steals for Fort Frye on Monday, while Khoen Courson had four.

Fort Frye led 22-12 at halftime, and had leads in several key categories– eight turnovers to Wheeling Central’s 15; 4-10 free throw shooting while Wheeling Central did not attempt a free throw in the first half; and 2-8 shooting from beyond the arc while Central shot 0-7.

“Fort Frye’s a good team,” Wheeling Central head coach Roberta Olejasz said. “Their defense bothered us in the first half. We didn’t take care of the ball great in the first half, they were up in our face, it took us a little bit to adjust to that. I mean, what did we have, 12 points in the first half? The second half, we adjusted at half time. We came in and made some adjustments on offense. “I thought our defense looked good throughout the game. I mean, in the first half we held them to 11 points a quarter or something like that. But offensively we struggled.”

Wheeling Central started the third quarter on a 12-3 run to draw within one point, 25-22, but never took the lead. Fort Frye led 36-32 going into the fourth quarter.

In the final period, Erin Maxwell scored on an offensive putback to tie the game 38-38 with 6:40 to play, and the Maroon Knights tied the game on two more occasions; 40-40 and 42-42, but a 3-pointer by Ella Dowler put the Cadets ahead for good, and Dowler made her free throws down the stretch as Wheeling Central tried to prolong the game by sending Fort Frye to the line.

Dowler went 5-6 from the foul line in the fourth quarter. She ended the night with a game-high 19 points to go with four rebounds and three steals.

“I liked the way we started out and then, we told ’em at halftime, Wheeling Central isn’t gonna just lay down,” Borich said. “They’re gonna come out in the third quarter and come at us. And sure enough, they did. We had a little bit of trouble with their press. But I will say this game, I thought that our girls kept our intensity level and our effort up the last couple of games. Tonight we didn’t let the mistakes get to us. We played through it and came out on top.”

Ava Huffman also came through with several big shots for Fort Frye in the fourth, all of them the same five-foot floaters that the junior scored most of her 14 points on.

Huffman scored six in the fourth quarter playing an unfamiliar role in the offense.

“I thought she did great,” Borich said. “We knew they were probably gonna come out and play a 2-3 zone. We thought it might be beneficial for us to put a guard in the middle that could look to shoot or attack the basket. Ava’s never played the middle before, so we told her after the game that she did a great job. You had basically one day in practice of playing that position and she did a good job. She stepped up for us.”

Maxwell led Wheeling Central with 14 points, also grabbing eight rebounds and dishing three assists. Seneca Heller scored 13 points for the Maroon.

Winning the second half 32-30, Olejasz saw positives in how her squad finished the game.

“We came back and scored 32 in the second half, which I’m not unhappy with, other than we came out on the losing end of it,” Olejasz said. “I thought our girls battled hard to get back in it when you’re down like that, they figured out how to move and get out of that double-team and all of the things that they needed to do.

“It was just a bit too little, too late. We got to figure out how to put it together in the last two minutes, or minute-and-a-half of a game to get over that hump.”