Frontier’s True King, right, goes up for a jumper during Thursday’s Ohio Valley Athletic Conference 1A semifinal victory over Valley at Hank Morus Gym. (Photo by Mike Morrison)

NEW MATAMORAS — Avery Powell and Jacob Bowersock combined for 43 points Thursday night to lead the Frontier Cougars to a convincing 76-56 win over the Valley Lumberjacks in an OVAC 1A tournament Semi-Final at Hank Morus Gymnasium.

Powell tossed in 22 points and Bowersock added 21 as the Cougars downed Valley for the second time this season and punched their tickets to Saturday’s championship game.

The Cougars offense was clicking on all cylinders as they ran their offense to perfection as evidenced by their team total of 22 assists.

“I was really proud of our effort tonight and the kids really shared the ball well,” said Frontier head coach Roger Kirkpatrick. “We played well as a team and I thought we really jelled tonight.”

Frontier jumped out to an early lead sparked by the play of their lone senior True King in the opening period.

Frontier’s Avery Powell (1) handles the ball during Thursday’s Ohio Valley Athletic Conference 1A semifinal victory over Valley at Hank Morus Gym. (Photo by Mike Morrison)

King tossed in eight points in the opening quarter while also coming up with a pair of steals as the Cougars built a 17-9 lead.

Valley managed to cut that lead to five early in the second period thanks in part to a three-pointer by Trevor Stackpole before the Cougars went on a 7-0 run to stretch their lead to 12.

A three-pointer by Powell followed by back-to-back buckets by Austyn Kephart did the damage for the Cougars.

“Early on True (King) kind of set the stage. He played defense and rebounded and scored some points,” said Kirkpatrick. “Kephart came in the second quarter and spunked us up and really gave us some great minutes off of the bench.”

Stackpole connected once again from long range but Frontier responded by scoring 9 of the next 12 points to extend their lead to 15 with less than a minute to play in the half.

Valley finished the half strong, led by Gavin Derby who scored five consecutive points to enable the Lumberjack’s to cut the lead to 38-27 at the break.

The Cougars ability to share the basketball resulted in them taking a lot of high percentage shots and they cashed in by shooting 60 percent (17-28) from the floor in the opening half.

Frontier went right back to work to open the second half as Powell converted a two-pointer and freshman Kason Hoff followed by connecting on a triple to push the lead to 16.

Landen Jericho briefly slowed the Cougars momentum by knocking down a three but Hoff and Powell answered with four points apiece to give Frontier a 51-30 lead with four minutes left to play in the third quarter.

Valley managed to chip away a bit at the lead and had it down to 14 at one time but the Cougars were not seriously threatened the rest of the way as they notched their 11th win of the season against seven losses.

The Cougars matched their first half shooting in the second as they finished the game at 60 percent from the floor while also dominating the glass as they out-rebounded the Lumberjacks 36-19.

Among Powell’s 22 points were a pair of three-pointers while the junior also dished out five assists.

Bowersock finished with a double-double as the sophomore yanked down a game-high 12 boards and also served up four assists to go along with his 21 points.

Kephart gave the Cougars a strong performance off of the bench as he returned from an injury to score 15 points and pull down five boards.

The Cougars had played without Kephart the past five games and Kirkpatrick was thrilled for him to return.

“We missed him those past five games because he brings a lot of energy to our team,” said Kirkpatrick. “It was a good team effort tonight and if we can keep playing like this we are going to be alright.”

Stackpole led the way for the Lumberjacks with 19 points including three from behind the arc while Derby added 17.

The loss dropped Valley’s season mark to 10-6.

The Cougars will travel to St. Clairsville to the ECO Center Saturday (2 p.m.) to take on Heartland Christian looking to capture their first OVAC title since 2020.

“They are a first-year Christian school about 30 miles out of Youngstown and they are really good,” said Kirkpatrick of his Saturday opponent. “They have only lost three or four games so we are going to have to get a game plan and see what we can do.”

After the OVAC tournament Frontier will turn their attention to the district tournament as they earned a No. 3 seed and will host Bridgeport in the district quarter-final next Friday night.