Fort Frye's Elle Casto, right, shoots over Waterford's Ava Hurley (30) during Monday's game in Beverly. (Photo by Mike Morrison)

BEVERLY – In a hard fought game between arch-rivals like Fort Frye and Waterford, one little run or spurt can make a huge difference in the outcome of the game.

On Monday night in front of a large crowd at Dan Liedtke Court the Wildcats used a strong second half start to put some separation between them and the Cadets and then went on to score a 35-30 win.

After the Wildcats won the first two quarters by identical 9-8 margins they opened the second half by going on a 6-0 run in the first two minutes to stretch their lead to 24-18.

Waterford forced the Cadets into a couple of miscues during their spurt as Kendall Sury, Elsie Malec and Avery Smithberger each got in on the act.

“I really liked the way we came out to start the second half but I don’t know why we didn’t keep it up,” said Waterford head coach Jerry Close. “We came out with a lot of fire and got after it and then kind of lulled ourselves to sleep. That little burst was the difference in the game though., there is no question.”

Waterford's Avery Smithberger (24) goes in for the layup as Fort Frye's Ella Dowler (32) looks up during Monday's game in Beverly. (Photo by Mike Morrison)

The Wildcats played a large portion of the opening half without Sury, who recently scored the 1,000th point in her outstanding Waterford career.

Sury picked up her second foul with less than two minutes to play in the first quarter and didn’t play at all in the second as she finished the opening half scoreless.

With one of their best players on the bench the Wildcats got a huge boost in the second quarter from sophomore Ava Hurley who provided Waterford with six points off the bench.

“We had some other girls step up and that was good to see,” said Close. “We’ve had games where they have shut Avery Wagner down and we’ve had games where they shut Kendall (Sury) down so we have just got to keep plugging along and someone else has to be the next man up.”

Fort Frye got a great start from an Ava of their own as sophomore guard Ava Huffman knocked down a couple of 3-pointers early in the game.

Waterford's Avery Wagner (30) drives baseline against Fort Frye's Aubrie Lang (24) during Monday's game in Beverly. (Photo by Mike Morrison)

With the Wildcats keying on Cadet senior Emmie Duskey, Huffman’s ability to knock down shots early in the game gave her team a huge lift.

“Ava stepped up early on and made a couple of big shots for us,” said Fort Frye head coach Dan Liedtke. “We just needed to find a little more consistency scoring and we had a couple of opportunities there that we didn’t take advantage of.”

After the Waterford run to begin the third quarter, Fort Frye got a two-pointer from Duskey to briefly squash the Wildcat momentum.

The ‘Cats regained it in a hurry though when Smithberger made one free throw and missed a second only to have freshman Brynnlee Pottmeyer come up with a huge offensive rebound and put-back bucket to extend the lead to a game-high nine points.

Fort Frye’s recent shooting struggles continued in the game but a pair of 3-pointers by Duskey and sophomore Haven Shilling pulled them back to within three.

The Wildcats closed out the third period with a field goal by Smithberger and opened the final quarter on a Hurley deuce off an assist from Wagner to stretch their lead back to seven.

Twice in the final quarter the Cadets managed to cut the lead to three but each time the Wildcats had an answer as they held on to notch victory number 17 against just one loss.

“I thought Fort Frye did a really nice job of taking us out of what we like to do,” said Close, in his 20th season as Wildcat head coach. “It was a defensive struggle and both teams played hard and we were fortunate to come away with a win.”

Wagner would turn out to be the only scorer to reach double-figures in the game as she finished with 10 while Smithberger and Hurley added eight points apiece.

Pottmeyer pulled down a team-high seven boards to go along with five points on a night where Sury was limited to a season-low two points.

Liedtke was pleased with the defense his team played – particularly the job that sophomore Aubrie Lang did against Wagner who had a significant height advantage.

“Aubrie (Lang) is very strong and she uses her body very well,” said Liedtke of his sophomore who gave up about a foot to the 6-foot-4 inch Wagner. “She gets herself in good position and to limit a great player like Wagner to 10 points is hard to do.”

The Cadets, who shot just 27 percent from the floor (11-41), were led in scoring by Duskey with nine while Huffman added eight.

The loss was the third of the season for the Cadets whose only other losses on the season came at the expense of undefeated Marietta.

“They got a good start in the third quarter and we kept scratching our way back and just missed some opportunities when had them,” said Liedtke. “This game here is going to help us though and it might be the one to get us over the hump.”

With just a handful of games remaining before tournament play. Close feels like his team is getting closer every day to where they need to be a few weeks down the road.

“We feel good about where we are but there are still a lot of things that we need to improve on,” said Close. “You come out of every game looking at your weaknesses and trying to fix them so we will be back in the gym tomorrow working on what we need to fix.”

The Wildcats will host Eastern on Thursday night while the Cadets will wait until next Tuesday when they open OVAC play at home against an opponent to be determined.