RIO - Rio coach Rob Staveness pleaded with his junior guard to attack.

Visiting Cambria-Friesland erased an eight-point first half deficit to take a 30-27 lead into the fourth quarter and Staveness pulled aside Robbie Fugiel with one simple message.

"Robbie, you've gotta go at people. Don't just accept a spot to shoot on the floor," Staveness said he told Fugiel. "‘Go at them,' and he did that well."

Fugiel scored eight of his game-high 17 points in the fourth and Rio outscored C-F 8-0 over the first seven minutes of the final quarter Saturday night to hold on to a 40-34 win.

"He hit a couple shots there and that got us going," Staveness said of Fugiel's play in the second half.

Fugiel also had seven points in the game's first quarter and his 3-pointer extended Rio's lead to 12-4 with 1:40 left. Cambria-Friesland adjusted in the second quarter, however, and used its 1-3-1 zone to force Rio (1-1) into long shots from the field and five turnovers.

The Toppers (0-1) tied the game at 15 on a Braeden Link basket before Ty Kearney had a last second put-back to give Rio an 18-16 lead at halftime.

"I think we just made dumb passes, got out of place," Fugiel said. "We tried to push it instead of holding on to it and they got steals and got easy put-backs."

Cambria-Friesland senior Ryan Lehman hit back-to-back 3-pointers to open the second half and the Toppers took a 22-20 lead, their largest of the game.

The Toppers scored the final four points of the third quarter and Mitchell Katze hit a layup with 6.2 seconds to go to give the Toppers momentum and a 30-27 lead heading into the fourth.

Rio took control from there, however, as Kearney powered for a layup to begin the fourth and Fugiel hit a pair of free throws to give Rio a 31-30 lead. Cambria-Friesland didn't score in the final quarter until Lehman grabbed an offensive rebound and put-back with 42 seconds remaining in the game.

"It's just, we've got to find ways to score, ways to put the ball in the basket," Cambria-Friesland coach Derrick Smit said. "I thought we had some nice looks inside and we got the ball inside a few times where we wanted to get it and we just didn't knock them down, you know. That's just stuff we've got to continue to work on."

His team having weathered Cambria-Friesland's second- and third-quarter runs, Fugiel said the comeback victory spoke to his team's determination.

"We never stop trying. We're always gonna try and come back or keep the lead," Fugiel said. "We're not gonna give up."

RIO 40, CAMBRIA-FRIESLAND 34

Cambria-Friesland....... 7 9 14 4 - 34

Rio............................ 12 6 9 13 - 40

CAMBRIA-FRIESLAND - B. Wiersma 3 0-1 8, Link 1 1-2 3, Hostert 2, Katze 1 0-2 2, S. Wiersma 2, O'Dell 2, Lehman 6 1-1 15, Totals 14 2-6 34.

RIO - Selje 3 1-3 8, Moon 5, Fugiel 5 4-6 17, Kearney 5 0-1 10, Totals 15 5-10 40.

3-Point Goals - Cambria-Friesland 4 (B. Wiersma 2, Lehman 2), Rio 3 (Selje 1, Moon 1, Fugiel 1). Total fouls - Cambria-Friesland 15, Rio 9.

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