Correspondent photo / Lowell Spencer Struthers’ Chloe Neider holds her follow-through after a foul shot Thursday night. Neider scored a career-high 36 points in Struthers win over Girard.

STRUTHERS — The Struthers Wildcats girls basketball team was able to clear the first hurdle in their hope to capture a Northeast-8 title Thursday night.

Now they need to prep for a first-place showdown next week.

The Wildcats, tied for first place in the NE-8, were able to thwart a stiff challenge by the Girard Indians 74-63 to stay even with Poland. The Wildcats will host the Bulldogs on Monday.

“Our biggest thing is that we still have six games left in the conference. Our approach was that we can’t look ahead,” Wildcats coach Bill Neider stated. “Our biggest thing was to just focus on today. That is one of the hardest things to do. The other thing we have talked about is that the league is not going to be won or lost in that game (Monday). There are still two more games after that.”

With the victory, the Wildcats improve to 13-6 overall and 10-1 in the league. The Indians, who sit third in the NE-8 drop to 12-6 and 8-3 in conference play.

“Putting 57 points on the board, most of the time you will win those games,” Indians coach Andrew Saxon said. “I thought we ran our offense nice, and we looked for the shots. We passed too much sometimes. We did a nice job of not turning the ball over.”

The Wildcats rained threes all night as their hot shooting from the outside provided the difference in what otherwise was a close, back-and-forth contest up till the fourth period.

The Cats connected on 11 shots from behind the arc with senior Chloe Neider drilling six on the night.

“In our last game we did not shoot very well,” coach Neider admitted. “It’s definitely an advantage being on our home court and we came out and got going early and kept shooting well. We got good looks and the penetration helped with getting players’ feet set and getting looks at the basket.”

Chloe Neider went on to score a game-high 36 points in the game. A proud moment for her dad and coach.

“She sees a lot of different pressure and she has gotten used to working with that,” coach Neider said. “I’m very proud. One of the things about coaching her and being her dad is that it is always coach first. You can’t really be the dad. But I’m really proud of how she approaches the game. She works hard and puts a lot of extra time in.”

Following a basket by Sieasia Triplett at the 3:01 mark of the fourth quarter, the Indians had cut the Cats’ lead down to just three at 60-57. However, back-to-back threes by the Cats’ Faith Stellato boosted their advantage to nine points at 66-57 with 2:13 remaining.

From there, the Cats converted 6-of-8 free throws to power them to a commanding 15-point lead.

The Indians didn’t give in as they closed the contest on a 6-2 run in the final minute and a half to reach the final nine-point margin.

The game was tight throughout with both teams tied at 15-15 at the close of the first period. Following a three by Neider at the 5:56 mark of the second quarter the Wildcats had built a 25-15 lead. But, the Indians went on a 13-6 run to close the half with Triplett connecting on a trey just before the end of the period to make it 31-28 in favor of the Wildcats at the intermission.

Triplett would start the second half as she finished the first with a three. Except for this time, the Indians had tied the Cats at 31-31 at the 7:33 mark of the third frame. The two squads then traded baskets before Neider connected on yet another three at the 4:54 mark of the period to stake the Cats to a 39-35 lead.

Neider then buried another shot from behind the arc with 2:12 left in the quarter to answer a charge by the Indians and reclaim a 5-point lead at 48-43. It wasn’t until Stellato’s three at the close of the period that they would build an 8-point advantage.

“I’m very proud and I told them that they deserved to win the game. But they (Struthers) just shot the lights out,” Saxon said. “When they are making shots like that it’s hard to beat a team like that.”

The Indians’ next game will be Monday when they play at Jefferson. As mentioned, the Wildcats will host Poland on Monday for first place in the NE-8.