HANNIBAL — River High coach Rick Isaly made a second half defensive switch to get his Lady Pilots on a roll to secure a hard-earned 44-35 win over East Liverpool on Thursday night at the R.L. Potts gym.

In a see-saw affair where floor accuracy waved the white flag, the Lady Pilots pulled away in the final five minutes in an OVAC ‘consolation round’ contest.

“We switched from our press to a man-to-man to get some steals and back in the game,” said Isaly, whose club trailed by nine in the first half. “We wanted to get (East Liverpool) out of a zone so we could go inside.”

It proved effective as River’s senior trio of Zoey Fox, Ava Wohnhas and Lynn Jones – the top rebounding trio in OVAC 2­-A, the hosts worked the glass and drew fouls.

“After one of our best defensive games in my 22 years here against Bellaire (a 46-32 win) in our last game, we were flat in the first half but picked it up in the final eight minutes,” Isaly said.

Lady Pilot sophomore Carleigh Trifonoff led the fourth quarter rally with a game-high 23 including 10-of-10 shooting at the foul line. Fox and Wohnhas each added 10 points.

East Liverpool led 6-5 and 17-11 at the quarter stops as the hosts shot 3-of-21, while the visitors turned it over 13 times.

River saw Wohnhas and Fox tally six each in the third, but the D-IV Lady Potters held a 26-24 lead entering the final round as the hosts missed 25-of-33 shots.

Trifonoff started the fourth with a drive and she wrapped two ‘treys’ around an EL hoop to push the Lady Pilots up 32-31.

Wohnhas, strong around glass, went 1-2 at the line before Ava Green, who led EL with 12, tied it at 33.

The fouls began to add up for the visitors as River cashed in from the 5:01 mark. A Fox free throw put River up, Trifonoff canned a corner jumper, and Isaly called time at 1:43.

River regained possession and Isaly spread out his offense to draw some foul opportunities. Trifonoff’s pair made it 39-33 at :29, Wohnhas added 1-of-2, before Green cut it to 40-35.

Trifonoff iced it with four straight from the stripe, including a technical with :10 left.

East Liverpool fell to 6-14, while 11-10 record River, trying to improve its RPI District spot, awaits a visit from Frontier, Monday.