ST. CLAIRSVILLE -For as bad as it was for Garaway in the first half, it was just as good in the second.
And for as bad as it was for the Pirates in the first half, they only trailed by seven points at the intermission.
But Garaway put it all together in the second half as head coach Dave Shutt's bunch recorded a come-from-behind 51-42 win over Fort Frye in the Division III boys basketball district semifinals on the campus of Ohio University Eastern here Tuesday night.
Garaway improved to 14-9 on the season and will play the winner of tonight's game between Coshocton and Buckeye Trail here Saturday night at 7:30 for a regional berth.
Fort Frye, guided by New Philadelphia High graduate Dan Liedtke, dropped out of tournament play with a 17-5 ledger.
Garaway junior Duane Troyer paced the winners with 18 points, including seven in the final frame. Junior Tyler Walter tallied seven of his 10 points in the fourth quarter and Winston Mullet added nine points as the Pirates nailed 10 of 13 free throws in the fourth quarter to win going away.
Fact Box
Garaway 51, Fort Frye 42
OU Eastern Div. III District
Garaway 9 15 15 21 51
Fort Frye 14 8 9 11 42
GARAWAY (14-9) Mullet 2 4-6 9, Troyer 5 7-7 18, Walter 4 0-0 10, Werker 1 2-6 5, Miller 1 3-4 5, Elmore 2 0-0 4, Honigford 0 0-0 0, Warkall 0 0-0 0. Totals: 15 16-21 51.
FORT FRYE (17-5) Schwendeman 2 6-6 11, Duskey 2 0-0 4, Smith 7 0-0 18, Brooker 0 0-0 0, Eddy 1 0-0 3, Lane 3 0-0 6, Spindler 0 0-0 0. Totals: 14 6-6 42.
3-point goals: (G) Walter 2; Mullet,
Troyer, Weker 1. (FF) S
Fort Frye's Shon Smith scored 14 of his 18 points in the first half as the Pirates shut the Cadets' sharpshooter down in the second half.
Kyle Schwendeman added 11 points for Fort Frye.
"We played a miserable first half, but felt we were right in it at halftime," said Shutt, whose team made just 5 of 19 buckets and allowed Fort Frye to made 8 of 16. "In the second half, we executed a little better and offense, played better defense and really rebounded the ball. Now're just 32 minutes away from the Convo (and the regional tournament in Athens)."
Garaway was 10 of 17 from the field after the intermission and looked like a completely different team coming out of the locker room.
Liedtke said it indeed was a tale of two halves for his club.
"Normally, our third period has been the strongest, but tonight it wasn't," said Liedtke. "We turned the ball over right off the bat, they took the momentum and never let up. Still, we had a very good season. We had a bunch of underachievers and they did a great job."
Fort Frye led 14-9 after the opening period and was on top 22-13 early in the second before the Pirates started to right their ship.
A pair of Troyer free throws under under a minute to play cut Garaway deficit to 22-15 at the half and a little momentum.
A Mullet triple off a Cadet turnover to start the third quarter got the Pirates going in the third quarter and his layup early in the fourth quarter gave Garaway its first lead at 32-31.
He later completed a three-point play with 6:06 left to give Garaway a 38-36 advantage and the Pirates would never trail again.
Garaway then put the clamps on defense and kept the Cadets off the scoreboard.
And they went to the charity stripe to put the game away.
Fort Frye closed to within five points with 42 seconds left, but Troyer countered with a pair of freebies and Walter hit a bucket off a turnover to extend their lead to 49-40.
