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Warriors earn 51-48 victory over Cadets

BEVERLY – It is often said in sports that it is better to be lucky than good.

Chances of success increase even more when you are good and then get a little bit of good luck to go along with that skill.

Such was the case for the Warren Warriors and Luke Drayer Tuesday night as the senior tossed in six points in a 30-second stretch of the fourth quarter to turn a five-point deficit into a one-point lead as the Warriors nipped the Fort Frye Cadets 51-48.

Trailing the Cadets 40-35 with five minutes to play in the game, Drayer silenced the loud Fort Frye crowd by banking in a three-point shot from behind the arc and followed that up with a strong drive to the basket that resulted in an old fashioned three-point play that gave the Warriors a lead that they would never relinquish.

“Luke Drayer stepped up big time for us tonight,” said Warren head coach Blane Maddox of Drayer, who scored nine points in the final quarter that saw the Warriors outscore the Cadets by a 19-15 margin. “When it looked like things were down for us he made some big plays.”

Warren held a 26-21 lead at the intermission despite nine points and three 3-pointers by FF senior Carter Lang.

It took the Fort just over a minute into the second half to grab the lead as Jacob Prichard, Derek Layton and Lang scored consecutive buckets to give the Cadets a 27-26 lead.

Warren jumped back in front by three late in the third quarter on a Seth Hall bucket before Layton closed out the quarter with a field goal to cut he lead back to a single point at 33-32.

Fort Frye, which played much of the game without leading scorers Justin Anderson and Carter Kiefer who were each in foul trouble got a big 3-pointer from freshman Tate Engle to retake the lead.

“When you are not playing with two of your best players you have to have other players step up,” said Fort Frye head coach Eric Henniger. “I’m pretty proud of the way our kids came off the bench and played. Most of our bench is freshman and sophomores, but they hustled and they took over when they needed to”

Hall knotted the score once again at 35-35 with a bucket on an assist from Kyler Dennis but Fort Frye regained the momentum in a big way on a three-point play by Layton and a steal and left handed dunk by Anderson that increased their lead to five and brought the Fort Frye crowd to it’s feet.

That momentum turned out to be short lived as Anderson was charged with his fifth foul and seconds later Drayer’s long 3-pointer was long but bounced off the glass and into the hoop to cut the lead to two.

Drayer followed with a strong drive to the basket that resulted in a three-point play and then assisted on a Bryce Gandee field goal that increased the lead to 43-40 with four minutes to play.

Minutes later Hall made a pair of freebies to increase the lead to five but Layton, who scored 12 of his team high 16 points in the second half, cut the lead back to three at 47-44 with an inside score.

“Derek is really our smartest player. He knows when to attack and for a big guy he is pretty fast,” said Henniger of Layton, who also grabbed a game-high 11 rebounds. “He did a great job of getting to the rim and really has become a leader.”

Warren was solid at the charity stripe down the stretch by making six-of-eight in the final two minutes but missed on a chance to retake a two-possession lead when Dennis made one-of -two freebies with 12 seconds to play giving the Cadets a chance to tie the score with a triple.

The Fort quickly moved the ball up the court and Engle got off a shot that bounced off the front of the rim and was rebounded by Layton whose last second three-point attempt shot also glanced off the rim as the buzzer sounded.

Drayer led all scorers with 18 points, while Dennis and Hall chipped in with nine and eight points respectively for Warren.

The win marked the second of the season for Warren against the Cadets and their head coach was pleased to escape Beverly with the hard earned victory.

“We knew Fort Frye was going to give us their best shot and this is an incredibly tough place to play,” said Maddox, whose Warriors improved to 6-1 with the win. “I’m really proud of the way we gritted this one out. We did it with a lot of determination and I’m just proud that we got this win.”

Both of Fort Frye’s losses on the season have come at the hands of the Warriors as they slipped to 7-2 on the season.

Warren is right back in action tonight when they travel to Alexander, while the Cadets are off until Saturday afternoon when they play Williamstown at Marietta College in the Ohio/West Virginia challenge at 4 p.m.

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