Fairbanks’ Gavin Horn goes to the basket against West Jefferson’s Jared Vermillon on Friday. Horn tallied a team-high 14 points during the 48-43 Homecoming loss.
(Journal-Tribune photo by Sam Dillon)
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The Fairbanks Panthers boys basketball team engaged in a back-and-forth battle with the Roughriders of West Jefferson in front of a packed gym on Friday during Homecoming.
All great battles must come to an end and this one did as well with the Panthers falling short to their Ohio Heritage Conference foe, 48-43.
The Panthers came out ready to shoot the long ball, but struggled to find the bottom of the net.
They went 0-for-six on their first three-point attempts.
Despite their shooting woes, the Panthers were still able to put six points on the board. The Riders, though, held an early 8-6 lead.
West Jefferson stretched the margin to 13-6 during the opening minutes of the second quarter.
FHS answered with a 10-point run to take a 16-13 lead with the help of a rare (for this night) three-pointer by Jacob Nicol.
The Panthers were able to take a 16-15 lead into the locker room.
“I think that it really came down to the first half,” said Fairbanks head coach Justin George. “We didn’t attack the basket as much as we would have liked to. We shot a lot of jump shots and we didn’t make a lot of jump shots. We only made two in the half and that makes a difference.”
The Panthers kept their offensive tempo high in the third quarter with the help of Gavin Horn. He was able to find the bottom of the net on four different trips inside the paint as FHS stretched its lead to 24-15.
The Roughriders, however, rallied and tied the game at 28-28 in the final minute of the third period.
Horn, though, gave Fairbanks a 32-28 lead by the end of the set.
“He (Horn) has been solid the whole time,” said George. “He is the person that we need to step up and continue to play at that level like he is capable of doing.
“We need that for the inside, especially going forward,” said George. “If we can keep the inside going, hopefully we can get it going outside and get our jump shots to fall and have a total offense.”
Fairbanks was able to keep its lead intact through the first four minutes of the final quarter with a three-ball from Cross Hackathorne.
West Jeff tied the game again at 36 with less than four minutes on the timer.
The teams exchanged the lead until the final minute of play when some physical play put shooters at the free throw line.
West Jefferson cashed in on their charity tosses for a 44-39 lead with 30 seconds remaining in the game.
The two teams took their turns at the line, but the Riders drained the pressure shots to keep the lead at five through the remaining seconds of the contest
“17-of-20 from the free throw line is hard to beat, especially down the stretch,” George said.
The loss dropped the Panthers’ record to 7-5 overall and 7-2 in OHC action.
They will return to the court on Tuesday when they will travel to Elgin.
George, though, has his eyes set on next Friday when the Panthers will play Triad for the OHC title.
Box Score
FHS 06 10 16 11 43
WJ 08 07 14 19 48
FHS- Horn 5-4-14, Nicol 4-0-9, Smith 3-0-6, Hackathorne 2-0-5, Beem 1-2-4, Rausch 0-4-4, Scheiderer 0-1-1
Three-point goals: Nicol 1, Hackathorne 1
WJ- Hunter 4-5-15, Thompson 2-7-11, Lambert 3-1-9, Vermillion 3-2-8, Casey 1-0-3, Brintlinger 0-2-2
Three-point goals: Hunter 2, Lambert 2, Casey 1