by JOHN HOWLEY / sportingpumpkin.com
LANCASTER — Fairfield Union took the lead in the second quarter and controlled the second half to hand Teays Valley its first league loss 49-37 Friday night.
The game’s outcome leaves Teays Valley with a 10-1 MSL Buckeye record and the Falcons with a 9-1 league mark.
If Teays Valley is going to win the league outright, it has to take care of business in its final three league games and see if the Falcons take a stumble in their final four league games.
“We told them, we haven’t gotten anything yet,” TV coach Brian Barnett said. “We move on to Tuesday night against Hamilton (3-8 MSL). They’re a scary team. Then we’ve got Circleville (5-5) who’s not an easy team and then we go to Liberty (5-6), which is not an easy place either.
“We’ll regroup tomorrow morning in practice and get ready for Hamilton.”
The Falcons go to Logan Elm (4-7 MSL) Tuesday, travel to Amanda-Clearcreek (0-11) Saturday and then finish up at home with Circleville and Bloom-Carroll (7-4).
The game started out well enough for the Vikings as they got out to an 8-2 lead and led 13-11 at the end of the first.
The Falcons grabbed the lead 16-15 early in the second on a three-pointer from Isaac Schmelzer and were up 28-22 at the half.
“They controlled the game the entire night,” Barnett said. “Their strength bothered us a little bit and would not allow to get into the tempo that we needed to get into.”
The Vikings closed to 33-31 with two minutes left in the third but Schmelzer sunk a three with 1:12 on the clock and added a free throw in the final seconds for a 37-31 Fairfield Union lead.
The Falcons played well with the lead in the fourth, hitting 4 of 6 field goal attempts and 4 of 7 free throws while the Vikings struggled with their shooting connecting on only three of 15 attempts.
“They made big shots down the stretch,” Barnett said. “When they needed a bucket, they got the ball where they wanted it. When we needed a bucket, they wouldn’t let us get the ball where we wanted it. Their strength bothered us and their defensive pressure bothered us.”
In that third period where the Vikings closed the gap, the Falcons were able to keep them from getting the lead, in part, because of a 10-2 rebounding edge. And six of those were offensive boards.
Fairfield Union had a 41-21 rebounding advantage for the game with 16 offensive boards.
“They just hammered us on the boards,” Barnett said. “We didn’t do a very good job of putting our bodies on people, we didn’t do a very good job of keeping our knees bent and hitting people, we just let them push us around and that cost us tonight.”
Ted Harrah led the Falcons with 13 points. Caleb Redding had 11 rebounds to go with 7 points and Caleb Schmelzer had 10 rebounds and eight points.
Sam Miller led Teays Valley with 14 points and Brody Fields had 13. Kole Nungester was TV’s top rebounder with seven.
Fairfield Union 49, Teays Valley 37
Teays Valley — Kole Nungester 2-0-6, Brody Fields 5-2-13, Ryan Allton 0-2-2, Ivan Smith 1-0-2, Sam Miller 7-0-14. Three-point goals — Nungester (2), Fields. Total — 15-48 4-5 37.
Fairfield Union — Brennen Rowles 2-3-8, Isaac Schmelzer 2-1-7, Ted Harrah 5-3-13, Caleb Redding 3-0-7, Caleb Schmelzer 4-0-8, Ronnie Rowley 2-1-6. Three-point goals — Rowles, I Schmelzer (2), Redding, Rowley. Total — 18-54 8-14 49.
Quarter scores 1 2 3 4 F
Teays Valley 13 9 9 6 37
Fairfield Union 11 17 9 12 49
(740) 477-1661
