Dec 20, 2024
Frontier’s Elaney Cisler makes a move with the ball during a game against Magnolia Thursday at Hank Morus Gymnasium. (Photo by Mike Morrison)
NEW MATAMORAS – The Frontier Lady Cougars continued their strong start to the 2024-25 basketball campaign Thursday night as they downed Magnolia 41-23 at the Hank Morus Gymnasium in the first game of a girls/boys doubleheader.
The Cougars jumped out to a double-digit lead in the opening quarter and were never seriously threatened as they won for the fifth time in six tries.
Frontier scored the first nine points of the game and 12 of the first 13 and led 16-4 at the end of the first quarter.
Old fashioned three-point plays by Kelsey Dye and Elaney Cisler were key in the Cougars getting off to the strong start.
“We got off to a great start and really had a good flow going early on,” said Cougar head coach Mike Cisler. “We got out of sync a little bit as the game went on but I’m proud of how they played.”
Frontier’s Avery Powell (1) pulls up for a jumper during a game against Valley Thursday at Hank Morus Gymnasium. (Photo by Mike Morrison)
Magnolia was able to make a dent in the Cougar lead in the second quarter as they trimmed it to nine but a two-pointer by Willow Smitley and a field goal and free throw by Dye sent the Cougars to the locker room with a 24-11 lead.
Frontier wasted little time extending their lead in the third quarter as they got buckets from Anna Bowersock and Alexis Livingston to open the second half before a triple by Smitley gave them a 20-point cushion.
The Blue Eagles managed to get the lead down to 17 at one point but that would be as close as the would get as the Cougars cruised to the win.
The Cougar defense did not allow Magnolia to reach double figures in any individual quarter and limited them to just 19.4 percent shooting from the floor (6-31).
“We really stress defense a lot and I was really pleased with their effort tonight,” said Cisler. “We look for our defense to help create some offense.”
Frontier was led by Dye with 10 points to go along with 11 rebounds.
Smitley added nine while Anna Bowersock finished with seven points to go along with 11 rebounds and five steals.
Cisler was pleased with the way his young team has performed in the early going.
“We are playing a lot of young kids and are kind of a work in progress so to be 5-1 at this point is special,” said Cisler. “Our girls are playing extremely hard and it’s great to see their work resulting in some wins.”
Kaylee Yost led the Eagles with nine points as they slipped to 2-1 on the season.
The Cougars will have a bit of time off before taking on Shenandoah on Dec. 27 at Marietta College.
BOYS
Fifteen minutes after the girls game wrapped up the Cougar boys took to the court as they hosted the Valley Lumberjackets and after a competitive first quarter the Cougar boys pulled away to a 55-39 win.
The victory was the third in a row for the Cougars who will host St. Marys on Saturday.
Avery Powell led three Frontier scorers in double figures with 19 points while True King and Jacob Bowersock added 11 and 10 respectively.
“I thought we played very well defensively and that kind of set the tone,” said Frontier head coach Roger Kirkpatrick. “We were kind of flat in our first game but these kids have really decided to play defense these last three games and I’m really pleased with the effort tonight.”
The game was knotted at 11-11 at the end of the first quarter before the Cougars out-pointed Valley 23-7 in the second quarter to open up a double-digit lead.
Frontier got a huge spark off of their bench from freshman Kason Hoff who drilled three triples in the first half alone to help the Cougars build their lead.
Hoff’s second three-pointer of the half opened the second quarter and Powell’s two-pointer quickly stretched the lead to five.
After a field goal by Wyatt Rogers briefly slowed the Cougar momentum Powell drained a three-pointer to stretch the lead to six.
Austyn Kephart’s bunny off of a great pass from King preceded another Hoff three-pointer and just like that the Cougar lead had swelled to 11.
“(Kason)Hoff came off the bench and hit some really big threes in the first half that kind of got us going,” said Kirkpatrick. “He’s just a freshman but he’s already a great shooter.”
Kirkpatrick’s team has several talented offensive players and that talent was on display all game long in the Cougars third home game of the season.
The Cougars managed to stretch their lead to 34-18 at the break and they quickly increased it to 20 early in the third on back-to-back inside buckets from King and Bowersock.
The Lumberjacks threatened to make things interesting in the final period as they trimmed the lead to 10 but four points apiece from King and Powell in a span of two minutes put an exclamation point on a Cougar victory.
In addition to his 19 points, Powell also dished out four assists for the Cougars.
King completed a double-double as the senior yanked down 15 rebounds to go along with his 11.
Bowersock filled out his stat sheet nicely with nine rebounds to go along with five assists while Hoff finished with nine points and seven rebounds.
“Bowersock is a leader that gives 110 percent and the other kids feed off of him and I thought Tru (King) did a heck of a job rebounding and Avery (Powell) had a great game,” said Kirkpatrick. “Caleb (Kirkpatrick) did a great job defending their guards it was just a good win for us. We pride ourselves on team and from one to ten all of our kids are important.”
Valley (1-1) was led by Trevor Stackpole with 14 points while Gavin Derby reached double figures with 10.
The Marietta College women’s basketball team struggled through a tough second quarter only come on strong late and …
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