Fort Frye’s Emmie Duskey (11) drives to the basket while being defensed by Marietta’s Kendall VanderWal (15) Monday night at Fort Frye High School. (Photo by Mike Morrison)

BEVERLY – Just three games into the regular season it’s quite obvious to see Marietta Tiger head coach Ryan McClain has a very deep, athletic basketball team.

Both of those attributes were on display Monday night as the Tigers traveled to Beverly to open Twin State League play and returned home with a 58-49 win.

Freshman Kendall VanderWal led the way with 15 points while seniors Alyssa Baker and Jacey McKnight tallied 11 apiece as the Tigers improved to 3-0 on the season.

“It’s a tough place to play and anytime you can get a win against a Dan Liedtke-coached team who I have so much respect for it’s a great win,” said McClain, in his second season as Tiger head coach. “Every time I thought we were going to bury them they just kept fighting back and fighting back but in the end we were able to come away with a good all the way around win.”

On a night when Tiger senior stand-out Leigha Lauer spent the entire third quarter on the bench with three fouls Marietta showed their depth as they got contributions from the other six girls that got into the game to stay afloat until Lauer returned to action for the final quarter.

Marietta’s Hayleigh Chidester tries to split the middle between Fort Frye defender’s Aubrie Lang (24) and Ella Dowler (32) Monday evening at Fort Frye High School. (Photo by Mike Morrison)

“Everybody contributed especially when Leigha was out in the third quarter,” said McClain. “Braxtyn Kroft and Mikayla Oliverira came in and anchored it down for us.”

The Tigers built a double-digit lead in the opening quarter with Baker, Lauer and VanderWal accounting for five points apiece and settled for a 19-11 at the end of the first quarter.

Junior Hayleigh Chidester got the second quarter started with a put-back bucket for two for the Tigers but a 3-pointer by Fort Frye sophomore Aubrie Lang and a two-pointer by freshman Elle Casto quickly cut the lead to five.

The Tigers would go to the line 16 times in the opening half, connecting on 13 including a pair by VanderWal to push the lead back to seven.

Baker followed with a triple to shove the Tiger lead back into double-digits and a pair of freebies by Oliverira extended the lead to 28-16.

Marietta’s Jacey McKnight (12) looks to get to the basket while being guarded by Fort Frye’s Ava Huffman (4) in a Twin States League game Monday at Fort Frye. The Tigers won 58-49. (Photo by Mike Morrison)

Fort Frye briefly slowed the Tiger momentum on a two-pointer by sophomore Ella Dowler but a basket by Oliverira and a triple by VanderWal gave them their biggest lead of the game at 15.

Lauer and Chidester each picked up their third fouls of the game late in the first half and McClain elected to sit them to start the second half.

Triples by McKnight and VanderWal early in the second half had the Tigers on the verge of a blow-out but the Cadets responded with a two-pointer by sophomore Ava Huffman and back-to-back triples by Dowler and Haven Shilling to trim the lead right back to nine.

As they were able to do all game long the Tigers recovered quickly and a bucket by Oliverira followed by back-to-back, high-arching, long range 3-pointers by McKnight quickly pushed the lead back to 17.

McKnight scored all but two of her 11 points in the third quarter as she broke out of a mini shooting slump to begin the season.

“Coming into tonight she (McKnight) has been struggling a little bit so it’s great to see her get going,” said McClain, whose team shot a productive 40 percent from behind the arc. “With her and (Alyssa) Baker and (Kendall) VanderWal we’ve got some really good shooters.”

The Cadets had no intentions of going away and they had an opportunity midway through the final period to cut the lead back to single-digits only to miss several three-point shots in a row.

“I was really pleased with how our kids just hung in there no matter what the circumstances were,” said Fort Frye head coach Dan Liedtke. “We could have easily just backed off but we didn’t and we just kept battling and battling and they didn’t let their guard down.”

In addition to her 15 points, VanderWal led the visitors with seven rebounds while Baker dished out six assists to go along with her 11 points.

The Tigers finished with nine 3-pointers in the game with VanderWal, Baker and McKnight connecting for three apiece.

Fort Frye was led by Duskey and Dowler with 14 points apiece.

Liedtke had high praise for the work his lone senior did on both ends of the court.

“Emmie (Duskey) did a great job defensively on Lauer,” said Liedtke of Duskey, who limited Lauer to just seven points in the game. “Being our lone senior she is taking on a great player like Lauer while at the same time running our offense so she has a lot on her shoulders but she does it very well.”

The win gives the Tigers the early advantage in TSL play with another rivalry game coming up on the road Thursday at Warren.

“The TSL’s a dog-fight every night and it’s kind of like playing a mini-district tournament,” said McClain. “We’re going into a crazy environment and their girls always fight so it will be another good test for us.”

Fort Frye will look to square their TSL record at home on Thursday against Point Pleasant.