North Union’s Riley Price (right) goes up for a shot against Fairbanks’ Baylor Green Tuesday evening. Price sank two late free throws as the Wildcats won, 49-47.
(Journal-Tribune photo by Tim Miller)
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Free throws were a rare commodity Tuesday evening when the boys basketball teams from North Union and Fairbanks squared off during a Union County battle on the Panthers’ court.
Ironically, it was a pair of charity tosses with scant seconds to play that sealed the Wildcats’ 49-47 victory.
There were only 17 offerings from the foul line between the teams.
The Wildcats had the better showing, cashing in on nine-of-11. The Panthers, on the other hand, made only three-of-six.
It was Riley Price’s free throws with 3.9 seconds to play that won the game for NU.
He was fouled going to the hoop in transition after FHS committed a turnover.
With the game in a stalemate, Price calmly made both shots that gave the visitors what would prove to be the winning edge.
“Those were frees throws made by a senior,” said North Union coach Brian Terrill as his squad improved to 9-10 on the season. “We’ve got a couple of guys whom I would not have minded seeing at the line in that situation and Riley is one of them.”
“We just made too many turnovers at critical times,” said Panther bench boss Justin George.
“We also shot a lot of jump shots and didn’t get some calls in the lane tonight,” he said. “That’s why we didn’t get to the foul line very much.”
The fact that the Wildcats were in a position to win the game was clearly not evident by the way they played for much of the opening half.
NU (which will host River Valley on Thursday) found itself in a hole midway through the opening quarter.
Fairbanks’ Baylor Green swished a long three-pointer that gave the Panthers a 15-7 lead and a firm grip on the game’s momentum.
A pair of free throws by Harley Day and a bucket on the low block from Mason Soviak pulled the Wildcats to within 15-10.
Noah Rausch’s jumper sent the Panthers (who slipped to 9-10) into the second quarter with a 17-10 margin.
Mason Smith scored on consecutive possessions as FHS (which will travel to Northeastern on Friday) climbed to a 21-10 lead.
“We just couldn’t get any stops during the first half,” said Terrill.
Cross Hackathorne’s three-pointer gave Fairbanks a 24-12 margin with 5:56 left until the turn.
The Wildcats had trouble getting shots to fall and the Panthers crashed the boards to limit them to one-and-done on most possessions.
“We rebounded and competed better tonight than we did last night at Greenon,” said George. “That was a big difference between the two games.”
Smith hit a pull-up jumper, followed by a bucket from Tyler Beem that gave the Panthers a 28-18 lead with a little more than three minutes left in the half.
Price connected on a jumper and later sank two free throws after Fairbanks was whistled for a technical foul.
Those charity tosses sliced the Wildcats’ deficit to 28-22 by halftime.
Both teams swapped shots to open the third period, but North Union soon caught fire.
Preston Crabtree’s trifecta pulled NU to within 32-31 and a stickback by Soviak gave the Cats their first lead of the game.
Soviak, who tallied a game-high 15 points, benefitted from the Wildcats’ high-low action that FHS could not contain. Day got numerous entry passes on the high post, turned and rifled it to Soviak on the low block for lay-ups.
“That was a big difference in the game,” said George.
Crabtree was spot on with another basket as North Union took a 35-32 edge.
FHS’ Jacob Nicol converted a steal into a layup, but Connor Terrill’s three-ball gave NU a bit of breathing room at 38-34.
The lead didn’t last for long as Nicol later drilled a trifecta that returned a 39-38 margin to the Panthers by the end of the third quarter.
Fans on both sides of the gymnasium could sense the game was going to go right down to the wire.
Crabtree knotted the game at 39 with a free throw, only to see Hackathorne pump in a jumper for a 41-39 Fairbanks lead.
Cody Neel buried the first of two “money” three-pointers that gave the Wildcats a lead they would not surrender (except for a tie) the rest of the way.
His second three-ball gave NU a 47-43 margin with 2:39 to play.
“Neel’s three-pointers were huge,” said George.
The game, however, still wasn’t over by any stretch of the imagination.
Gavin Horn and Beam hit baskets to tie the battle at 47 with 57 seconds left on the timer.
Terrill and George then played the time-out chess match, with both teams burning the rest of their sideline summits during the final minute.
Both teams came up with empty possessions on turnovers down the stretch.
The most critical one for FHS came right before Price was sent to the stripe for the winning shots.
North Union
Soviak 7-1-15, Crabtree 4-1-10, Price 1-4-6, Neel 2-0-6, Terrill 2-0-5, Day 2-1-5, Krebehenne 0-2-2, Feasel 0-0-0. Totals 18-9-49.
Three-point goals: Neel 2, Crabtree 1, Terrill 1.
Fairbanks
Nicol 5-0-12, Hackathorne 2-3-8, Smith 4-0-8, Horn 4-0-8, Beem 3-0-6, Green 1-0-3, Rausch 1-0-2, Higinbotham 0-0-0, Scheiderer 0-0-0. Totals 20-3-47.
Three-point goals: Nicol 2, Hackathorne 1, Green 1.
Fairbanks’ jayvee team won the preliminary game, 57-22.
Mason Winkle led the Jr. Panthers with 14 points and Braylon Green added 13.
Koldan Wiley and Ethan Hoffer each tallied six points for NU.