The cheers inside the locker room echoed back into the gymnasium and reverberated across the floor.

“Western Reserve is a very good team,” said point guard Emma Elia, who scored 26 points and had five assists. “They’re very highly ranked in their Division and this was a huge win for us. It guaranteed us a finish above .500 — a winning season. So we’re all pretty excited about it right now.”

The Wildcats improved to 12-9 and will close the regular season Wednesday at Austintown Fitch.

“In the beginning of season, we knew we had our work cut our for us because we were a young team, with just one senior,” Struthers coach Bill Neider said. “We were very inexperienced and we played some very tough teams. We just kept working to get better every day and it’s paid off. This was a good win for us. They’re a good basketball team and well-coached with talented players.

Staff photo / Brad Emerine Western Reserve’s Brooke Schantz sprints up the floor ahead of Struthers’ defender Heikie Kaurschill.

“I think we’ll be a tough team to beat in the tournament, if we continue to play the way we’re playing.”

Western Reserve coach Steve Miller, while disappointed with his team’s play, agreed with his counterpart.

“Struthers is a very decent team and when they play their best, they’re tough to beat,” he said. “I think they played four quarters tonight and Bill tells me that’s been the one drawback they’ve had, with being a young team. But they put it together tonight.”

It was the Blue Devils’ first game since beating McDonald 51-46 last Thursday in the Mahoning Valley Athletic Conference finale to earn a share of the league title with McDonald.

Western Reserve led Struthers 27-20 with 1:44 left before half, but senior Renee Leonard scored seven consecutive points as the Wildcats earned a halftime tie.

“We had our opportunity to maybe put them away when we were up 27-20 late in the first half and, to be honest, we weren’t playing our finest either and still had that lead,” Miller said. “They made that run to tie had all the momentum and confidence and that just carried over into the second half. We never woke up in the second half.

“They beat us in every phase of the game imaginable. They were more aggressive, shot it better, they got to the basket and rebounded better than we did, they located our shooters and communicated better than we did. It’s disappointing after the way we played against McDonald.”

Elia scored eight of her team’s 11 points in the third quarter was Struthers assumed a 38-32 lead entering the final period.

“I thought we began to focus better on taking care of our business,’ Neider said. “When we got down in the first half, we weren’t boxing out and doing some of the things we need to do to have success. We limited their second-chance points and covered the 3-pointer better in the second half. I’m very pleased with the finish of the first half and the entire second half.”

Struthers pulled away with a 20-10 scoring advantage in the fourth quarter as the Blue Devils continued their second-half struggles.

“We were moving the ball, cutting harder and working harder on the boards,” said Elia, who averages 16.7 points per game. “We did all those things better in the second half. We played well on defense most of the game, but then we didn’t finish it with the rebound in the first half. We also forced more turnovers.”

Leonard finished with 15 points.

“Emma is one of the leading scorers in our league,” Neider said. “She plays hard and can shoot the ball, get to the basket and is very unselfish. Renee is our only senior and she is our spark plug defensively. She plays with great intensity. She has a ton of deflections and that really makes things happen. A lot of her defensive work leads to breakouts for us offensively.”

Chloe Neider scored 10 points and Ella Croyle came off the bench with solid play for the Wildcats, who were 16-for-19 from the free-throw line.

Danielle Vuletich scored 17 points and Alyssa Serensky added 10 points for the Blue Devils, who close the regular season Wednesday at home against Columbiana.

“Up to this point, we’ve had a really good regular season,” Miller said. “We only have one practice to get ready for another good opponent on our Senior Night and that’ll determine whether we take a day or two off because before starting to prepare for the tournament. “We have a first-round bye and we’ll have a lot of time to prepare. I was learning toward giving them time off until tonight. But maybe we don’t take some time off, if we can’t play better than we did tonight.”