×

Frontier girls capture sectional title

MIKE MORRISON, The Marietta Times Frontier’s Lexi Brookover is near tears as she cuts down her piece of the net after the Cougars downed Bishop Rosencrans. 68-41, Saturday to win a Division IV sectional championship.

NEW MATAMORAS — Kylie Daugherty poured in a game-high 28 points as the Frontier Cougars rolled to a 68-41 win Saturday night over the visiting Bishop Rosecrans Lady Bishops to claim a Division IV sectional championship.

Leading by just eight points at halftime, the Cougars shot a blistering 65 percent (15 of 23) in the second half as they outpointed Rosecrans, 39-20, to pull away and improve their season record to 18-6.

“It’s a great feeling to get this win because these girls work so hard and they put so much into it,” said Frontier head coach Scott Murphy.

“They play great together and they are unselfish and everything it takes to be a champion they do.”

Frontier led by as many as 12 in the opening half before the Bishops got a pair of buckets in the closing seconds of the first half to trim the lead to eight.

The Cougars wasted little time regaining the lost momentum however as after a Riley Hagy bucket for Bishop Rosecrans cut the lead to six, the Cougars scored 13 unanswered points to stretch their lead to 13.

Daugherty had six of those points all coming off of assists from fellow junior Tiffany Graham.

“We wanted this win so bad because we just want to keep moving on,” said Daugherty, who scored 19 of her points in the second half.

“I’m very lucky to get to play on such a great team.”

The Bishops managed to trim the lead to 16 a pair of times but would get no closer the rest of the way as the Cougars cruised to the victory to advance to district tournament play next week.

Daugherty finished the game with a double-double as she also totaled 10 rebounds as did senior Lexi Brookover who finished with 16 points and a game-high 12 rebounds.

“It’s an amazing feeling. We have been trying to do this our whole high school career,” said Brookover. “We have had some games earlier in the season where we were up and let the game get away from us. We knew we had to finish and we did that tonight.”

While Daugherty and Brookover led the way, Sammi Morris, Nikki Haught and Graham each played pivotal roles in the dominating win as well.

Haught tossed in nine points, Morris scored eight and also grabbed eight rebounds while Graham added seven points and seven assists.

After losing six of their final 10 games to close out their regular season after beginning the season 12-0, the Cougars appear to be on track after capturing both OVAC and sectional titles.

“Once the regular season was over our record was erased and we have been able to win some games and some titles,” said Murphy. “We are going to take each game one at a time and these girls are really playing some good basketball at the right time.”

The Bishops (14-9) were led by Hagy with 18 and Abbey Hutcheson with 14.

Frontier will now move on to take on Malvern Wednesday evening at a site and a time to be determined.

NEWSLETTER

Today's breaking news and more in your inbox

I'm interested in (please check all that apply)
Are you a paying subscriber to the newspaper? *

Starting at $4.15/week.

Subscribe Today