Fort Frye’s Jantzyn Huck (3) goes up for a basket as Warren’s Danica Gates (30) defends during Wednesday’s game at Dan Liedtke Court. (Photo by Mike Morrison)

BEVERLY – With leading scorer Ella Dowler sidelined due to an injury the Fort Frye Cadets would need someone to step up in Wednesday night’s rematch against the Warren Warriors at Dan Liedtke Court.

Freshman Raelann Morgenstern would rise to the occasion as she poured in a game-high 21 points to lead the Cadets to a thrilling 38-33 comeback win to sweep the season series against the Warriors.

Morgenstern scored 19 points in Monday night’s loss to Monroe Central and provided the Cadets with the offensive firepower they needed once again against Warren.

“I thought Raelann Morgenstern played a heck of a game tonight especially for a freshman,” said first-year Cadet head coach Cathy Borich. “She didn’t let the pressure get to her and she stepped up when we needed her the most.”

The Warriors continue to play without injured starters Aubrey Pepper and Taylor Greenwalt but for the bigger part of the game they managed to keep the all important momentum on their side.

Warren’s Danica Gates goes up for a basket during Wednesday’s game against Fort Frye at Dan Liedtke Court. (Photo by Mike Morrison)

After Morgenstern’s triple gave the Cadets an early 3-1 lead, the Warriors answered with nine straight points including five from junior Rylee Arnold.

Arnold’s triple with an assist from Jayda Murray allowed the Warriors to pull out to a 10-3 lead.

The Cadets answered with two-pointers from Ava Huffman and Jantzyn Huck to trim the lead to three before Warren added a pair of freebies by Danica Gates and one by Josie Venham to take a 13-7 lead at the end of the first quarter.

Warren continued to add their lead and even shoved it to double-digits at one point after a bucket from Arnold.

Fort Frye quickly cut the lead back to three thanks to two-pointers from Addie Schob and Huffman and another three-pointer by Morgenstern.

The Warriors quickly responded by turning a steal by Murray into a lay-up on the other end for Danica Gates and a two-pointer off of another steal by DeLaney Gates.

Morgenstern would finish the first half with 11 points, the final three coming when she knocked down another triple as the Cadets went to the locker room trailing the Warriors by just four (23-19).

Making matters even worse for the Cadets to begin the second half, Huffman was unable to go after suffering some sort of injury to herself late in the first half.

“I thought that all of our freshmen came and did a great job,” said Borich. ” Raelann was handling the ball with both Ella and Ava out and Jantzyn Huck and Addie Schob gave us some good minutes off of the bench.”

The Warriors extended the lead back to six early in the third period before a three-point play by Morgenstern closed the lead to 27-24 with less than three minutes to play in the quarter.

A give and go bucket from Arnold off of an assist by Murray preceded Murray’s two-pointer off of an assist from DeLaney Gates as Warren pushed the lead back out to seven before a pair of free throws by Morgenstern cut the margin to 31-26 at the end of the third quarter.

Fort Frye scored the first four points of the final quarter thanks to buckets by Khoen Courson and Huck and all of the sudden it was a one-point ball game with the majority of the final quarter to play.

DeLaney Gates cashed in on a basket in transition after Murray came up with a huge steal to push the lead back to three but unfortunately for the Warriors that would be the final points they would score as they were held scoreless over the final five minutes of the game.

Yet another Morgenstern two-pointer pulled the Cadets to within a single point with just under five minutes to play.

Up to this point in the game Elle Casto had not scored a single point for the Fort but that all changed in a huge way when Morgenstern found her wide open under the bucket and her two-pointer gave Fort Frye their first lead since the opening minute of the game.

From that point on the Cadets would do just enough at the charity stripe to extend their lead with Morgenstern’s two freebies in the final 10 seconds pushed the lead to five and secured the 16th win of the season for the Cadets compared to just three losses.

For the second straight game the Cadets got a huge performance from their freshman class as they accounted for all but 10 of the Fort Frye points.

The Warriors (10-8) got 11 points apiece from Arnold and Danica Gates who completed a double-double by also pulling down a game-high 11 boards.

Warren turned the ball over 22 times in the game and head coach Brad Venham felt like that played a key role in his team’s inability to close out the game.

“We had some costly turnovers especially towards the end of the game,” said Warren head coach Brad Venham. “I think we started to feel the atmosphere and the momentum change and kind of let the noise get to us a little bit.”

While the results weren’t what they had hoped for, Venham had no doubt at all that his team left it all on the court.

“We always say don’t let effort be the reason you get beat and that certainly wasn’t the case tonight,” said Venham. “The effort was there but the ball didn’t bounce the way we needed it to go — I’m super proud of them and we are still continuing to grow with this group.”

Warren will host Williamtown on Saturday night while the Cadets will travel to Martins Ferry Thursday for the OVAC Consolation game.

“This was a big game for us and there was a big crowd again and this is a great experience for our team,” said Borich. “I’m really proud of how the girls responded, especially in the second half.”