Frontier’s Avery Powell, middle, splits the Wood County Christian defenders during Friday’s game in Williamstown. (Photo by Kerry Patrick)

WILLIAMSTOWN – On the cusp of surpassing last year’s win total in just the second game of the regular season,the turnover bug reared its ugly head just when Wood County Christian needed to convert most.

In the first of two meetings scheduled only 11 days apart, Frontier overcame a horrid night from the field and escaped with a 34-32 road win to even its record at 1-1.

With WCCS leading 32-31 and the clock under two minutes, Frontier’s Ethan Snyder jumped in front of a pass as the Cougars double-teamed Wildcat point guard Eli Christman just beyond half-court. Following a series of missed bunnies and a tie-up during the same possession, Frontier’s Avery Powell misfired from 3-point range but Snyder cleaned up with the putback to put the Cougars in front to stay at 33-32 with 44 seconds remaining in regulation.

Christman’s pull-up jumper on the next series missed the mark, and following Aaden Bills’ defensive rebound teammate True King sank the back-end of a two-shot foul at 6.8 seconds.

Another WCCS turnover at 2.3 seconds – its 25th of the game – didn’t quite lock up the win for Frontier because the inbounds pass tossed downcourt was caught by WCCS’ Braeyn Joseph.

Joseph, however, lost his footing and was unable to get the shot off from three-quarters court as time ran out.

“No,” Frontier coach Roger Kirkpatrick replied when asked if he had seen a similar ending as Friday night in his 30 years of coaching.

For a brief moment as WCCS was trying to sub in the waning seconds, the Wildcats had six players on the court, according to one observer.

“Wood County Christian throws the ball away then we got the ball and threw the ball away,” Kirkpatrick continued. “You want to put them in a position to foul you – not to throw the ball away. They are young kids. You had a junior throwing to a kid who was a sophomore. Sometimes I had all underclassmen on the court.

“We will take the win. I give my kids credit. They fought back.”

WCCS slipped to 1-1 despite a game-high 18 points from JJ Dimit, who accounted for four of the game’s six 3-pointers.

“We had a chance to win this thing,” WCCS coach Rod Lanham said. “What it really came down to was our turnovers.

“We actually played very well. We are improving as a basketball team, and we have come a long way since last year.”

Frontier, which had issues shooting from close range especially, slipped into a major scoring drought midway in the second half. Avery Powell’s putback with four minutes remaining in the third quarter gave Frontier its largest lead at 26-22.

The Cougars did not score again for another seven minutes and fell behind 32-26. A total of 9 ½ elapsed between made buckets – the icebreaker coming on yet another putback, this one by King which cut the margin to one at 32-31 with 2 ½ minutes left in the game.

Scoring was at a premium in the first half. Landon Dunn provided the top highlight on offense when he canned an NBA-esque 3-pointer from up top just before the clock expired at the end of the first quarter to put the Wildcats in front 7-5.

Despite the high turnover rate, WCCS mastered the team concept – especially in the second half. All six field goals were attached with an assist. Braeyn Joseph was responsible for three of those assists.

Joseph also turned in a stat line which consisted of six redounds, five assists and two steals. Teammate Owen Allman worked the glass for 12 rebounds.

“Playing as a team was something we were lacking last year and the year before last,” Lanham said. “We’ve really been working on cuts – really understanding movement. They are understanding we have to keep floor spacing and a lot of movement. It’s coming.”

Contributing to the Frontier scoring were Powell with eight points and King with seven points.

“We missed a lot of easy shots – we are real young and we are going to struggle until we learn how to score,” Kirkpatrick said. “I think we will be fine. I’ve seen us in scrimmage where we played really well. Once we find what it takes to score, I think we will be OK.

Contact Kerry Patrick at kpatrick@newsandsentinel.com