STRUTHERS — Struthers’ Emma Elia and Niles’ Aneziah Fryer led the way for each of their teams Monday night at the Struthers Fieldhouse. In the end though, Elia got 41 points from her supporting cast while Fryer only got 13 and the Wildcats came away with a 65-39 win in a Northeast8 Conference girls basketball game.

Elia finished with 24 points and Fryer had 25 points as she tried all night to will the Red Dragons to victory. Her scoring was crucial in getting Niles within eight in the early stages of the third quarter.

“She’s a great team player,” Niles coach Makayla Butler said about Fryer. “She does a lot for us. She puts most of our points on the board. She also looks to give it up. She looks to get the assists and get the other girls involved. She should have way more assists than she does, but we can’t get those shots to go in.”

“Emma’s really playing well,” Struthers coach Bill Neider said. “She’s feeling it. She has been for the last four or five games. Whether it’s transition, a steal, or knocking down 3s.

“Fryer going out with the foul trouble really changed everything. We were able to step up and put some pressure on them.”

That fourth foul came with 6:55 left to play and was a game-changer that took an 11-point Struthers advantage to 22 when Elia ran off four straight buckets to put the dagger into the Red Dragons (3-9, 3-3).

“It was an 8 to 10 point game most of the time, then Aneziah got in foul trouble with four fouls,” Butler said. “We didn’t want to pull her, but we didn’t want her to pick up her fifth foul. We pulled her for just a minute or two and they went on a strong run.”

Early on, the Red Dragons hung tough overcoming a sluggish start to tie the game at 7-7 with 2:01 left in the opening quarter, but Struthers (6-5, 4-2) responded with a 7-0 run to make it 14-7 after one.

The Wildcats built on that momentum to push the lead out to a 14-point advantage, 25-11, after a Kaylei Shaffer bucket.

Niles responded with back-to-back buckets to close out the half to make it 25-15. Both teams struggled to make shots in that opening half.

“They came out and did what we thought they were going to do,” Neider said. “We knew we were going to see the 1-3-1 and 3-2. We worked on trying to get the ball to the dead spot. We wanted to be patient. We wanted to keep moving the ball. When we did that, we got some pretty good looks. Sometimes they don’t go in, I don’t know how.”

Struthers held the 10-point lead despite controlling the boards 23-12. It was the Wildcats’ 10-of-31 shooting that helped keep the Red Dragons within striking distance.

“There were a lot of baskets we should have made which were high percentage baskets and they don’t go in,” Neider said. “Niles switched up their defenses. They’re in zone and that got us out of our comfort zone. We have to be more disciplined. When we were, we got better looks and the ball started falling.”

For the game the Wildcats outrebounded the Red Dragons 34-25 and saw their shooting pick up in the second half, especially in the fourth quarter when they shot 10-of-12 and outscored Niles 25-9.

“They definitely outrebounded us,” Butler said. “Everyone of their team can shoot the 3 ball. We can’t, so trying to control their 3 is a weakness of our defense.

“Offensively, we couldn’t buy a bucket. We couldn’t put the ball in the hoop. We’ve struggled with that all season.”