Photo by Nick Henthorn Bellaire’s Eliana Mason sizes up her defender during the Big Reds’ District Finals game against Fort Frye on Saturday inside John Glenn High School.

NEW CONCORD — A big second-half surge proved too much for the Bellaire Big Reds in their OHSAA Division VI East District Final against Fort Frye, the Cadets (19-4) pulling away for a 55-29 victory over Bellaire (20-6) inside John Glenn High School.

Fort Frye led 20-13 at halftime following a 3-pointer in the final seconds by the Cadets’ Ava Huffman, but doubled their first half scoring output in the third quarter alone to vault ahead by double digits in the third quarter and seal the victory in the fourth.

“The first half, I thought we were battling, we were right there, they hit a big 3 at the end of the half to give them some momentum,” Bellaire head coach John Farrier said. “In the second half, they made shots. They’re a great shooting team, and they made some shots and got some distance.

In the third quarter, offensive rebounds helped Fort Frye — they grabbed four in the quarter — and the Cadets also scored six points off of backdoor cuts, but 3-pointers were the biggest source of offense for Fort Frye, making four in the quarter. Ella Dowler made two on her way to a game-high 18 points.

Bellaire’s full-court pressure in the later parts of the third and all of the fourth quarters didn’t rattle the Cadets.

“Then, we knew how good they are in the half court, slowing things up, and we felt the only chance we had to get back into the game was trying to speed it up, pressure them, press them,” Farrier said. “That ended up leading to some easy ones for them, but we knew that was our only chance to get back into the game, so we tried it.”

Bellaire’s Eliana Mason led the Big Reds with 13 points. Tamya Morgan followed with six.

Fort Frye shot 9-17 from behind the arc, while Bellaire shot 1-12.

Bellaire had 15 turnovers to Fort Frye’s 10. The Big Reds did out-rebound the Cadets, 22-20. Morgan and Zara Harveth each had five rebounds.

It was the final game for Bellaire’s trio of seniors, Mason, Harveth and Rhyan O’Grady, all four-year starters for their team.

“Our seniors always battled, I thought they did a great job defensively to start the game,” Farrier said. “Our seniors have had great careers, they’ve had 62 wins, got 20 wins this year, three sectional championships, a Buckeye 8 championship, competed in the OVAC tournament all four years. I’m proud of the careers our seniors have had, all three of them are four-year starters and we’ve had a good run with them.

“I’m very proud of them and I’m very proud of all of them, our team has grown and they’ve come a long way.”

It was a memorable season for Bellaire, who reached the District Finals for the first time since 2019.

“It’s definitely a memorable season,” Mason said. “I will never forget my teammates and the bonds that we’ve made, and my coaches for supporting me through where we are today. Without everyone on this team, we wouldn’t have made it to where we ended up.”

“I’m going to miss my teammates, I think we all played great to get here,” Harveth said. “I’m going to of course miss playing for my uncle, I’ll never get to do that again. We had a lot of accomplishments throughout high school.”

The Big Reds seniors were proud to bring success to their school over their four years in uniform.

“From being a ballgirl and watching our high school team win an OVAC championship, to putting on the jersey yourself and taking your team back to districts, it’s kind of memorable for the high school and it was definitely an accomplishment for the team,” Mason said of reaching the District Finals.

The OHSAA playoffs continue with Fort Frye playing Belpre this Thursday in the Sweet 16.