Fort Frye's Ava Huffman rejects a lay-in attempt by Bellaire's Eliana Mason. (Photo by Jay W. Bennett)

NEW CONCORD, Ohio – In a Division VI district final here Saturday afternoon at John Glenn, second-seeded Bellaire and top-ranked Fort Frye combined for 13 turnovers in the opening quarter as the Big Red watched a 6-5 lead after one turn into a season-ending 55-29 defeat.

The plan now for the Cadets of head man Dan Liedtke is to reach win No. 20 in their 25th game when they collide with Belpre at 6 p.m. Thursday in the Sweet 16 at Pickerington North.

“When you get to this place you got to prepare like the other team is going to play the game of their life and you got to prepare to somehow try to beat them,” said coach Liedtke. “We were struggling. I mean Bellaire was doing a really good job. They were doing a lot of switching and we weren’t really taking advantage of it.

“That was one of the differences, too, at halftime that we knew we could do that and we needed to get a little bit more, I don’t know, things to the basket. I think we needed to get more slips going to the basket and some give-and-gos. You know, and then the girls, it started happening.”

Eliana Mason, who had eight of her team-high 13 points in the first half, scored on a driving layup for a 12-10 Big Red advantage at the 4:02 mark, but FFHS closed on a 10-1 run capped by an Ava Huffman trey with 3 seconds remaining.

Fort Frye's Emmie Duskey goes for one more dribble before crashing to the floor as Bellaire's Eliana Mason defends. (Photo by Jay W. Bennett)

“It feels great to get back and win another district title,” admitted Emmie Duskey, who joined Huffman with 13 markers while adding four caroms, three dimes and two thefts. “The same court and everything. We were back here last year against Union Local.

“Coach always preaches that third quarter is when you have to come out. Some games we don’t do that, but today we definitely came out and our defense led to our offense, and our shooting was very good as well.”

Cadet Ella Dowler, who led all scorers with 18 and canned four 3s, knocked a long one down to open the third as the eight-member strong gang from Beverly never looked back.

Aubrie Lang, who had a game-high six assists along with four rebounds and two steals, capped a 13-0 Cadet run by making two foul shots with 1:20 left for a 55-26 cushion after a Tamya Morgan putback got the Big Red within 16 early in the fourth.

“This is my first year really playing. Last year I was more on JV so I didn’t get to really play, but I love the gym. It’s really nice,” Lang said of the former stomping grounds of John Glenn graduate, Buckeye great and 2006 Ohio Basketball Hall of Fame inductee Jay Burson. “It was a really nice atmosphere to play in.

“First half it was kind of rough. The cuts weren’t really working because they were switching. Even when we tried to do our regular it wasn’t working. At halftime we switched up and did another offense that he liked and that worked really well. We’re all really close. It’s really fun to play with the girls.”

Fort Frye’s defense held Bellaire to 31.4% (11 of 35) from the field and the Big Red missed 11 of 12 from deep. The Cadets drilled 9 of 17 from beyond the arc and shot 54.1% (20 of 37).

When asked if he had a preference on who the Cadets faced next coach Liedtke added “no. I mean no. At this point whoever is there that’s who you are going to play so you just go back, prepare for it, and you know, they got to have fun doing it too. I think they are. This group has really came together really close so it makes it really special.”

Shilling finished with seven points and a game-high six rebounds. The Cadets lost the rebounding battle, 22-20, but held a 15-10 edge in turnovers after making just four in the second half.

Morgan had six points and a team-high five rebounds for Bellaire (20-6) head coach John Farrier, who watched Mason, Rhyan O’Grady and Zara Harveth, who had four points, three caroms and two steals, play their final game.