Falcons wing to win

Fitch gave Wilson its first loss, 77-57.
By JOE SCALZO
VINDICATOR SPORTS STAFF
AUSTINTOWN -- Fitch High basketball players Kevin Johnson and Greg Mayes complement each other well.
Friday night, their efforts earned a compliment.
"They play well together," Fitch coach Gary Conroy said. "If [a team] wants to sag down on Greg, then Kevin will knock down shots. He's an excellent 15-foot jump shooter."
Together, the Falcons duo scored 29 points as Fitch handed Wilson its first loss, 77-57 at Austintown Fitch High School.
"In the first half, I wasn't feeling it but Greg played well down in the post," said Johnson, who scored 14 of his 16 points in the second half. "He started swinging the ball out to me and I felt confident, so I kept shooting."
The Falcons (3-1) started quickly, opening the game with a 16-2 run.
Alley-oop: Mayes scored eight of his 13 points during that stretch, including an alley-oop dunk off a pass from Shawn Barber.
Wilson (3-1) finished the first quarter trailing 24-9 and had to play catch-up the rest of the game.
"It looked like we were a little intimidated at first," Wilson coach Mark Cherol said. "They scored a bucket early off the opening tip and then they got the dunk. The kids were a little bit tentative."
Fitch scored the first six points of the second quarter, but the Redmen went on a 12-2 run to cut the lead to 33-21.
Single-digit lead: In the fourth quarter, Wilson cut the lead to single digits (52-43) for the first time since the opening minutes of the game. But the Falcons dug in and connected on 17 of 23 free throws in the final period to put the game away.
Fitch hit only 5 of 14 (36 percent) from the line in the first half and were 24 of 39 (61 percent) for the game.
"We came into the game shooting 60 percent from the line, so it's not like we didn't know about it going in," said Conroy of Fitch's foul-shooting troubles.
"But we made some big free throws down the stretch. We haven't spent as much time working on them as in the past, but obviously that's going to change."
Fitch sophomore Terrell Eargle scored 17 points and had eight assists. Shawn Barber scored 15 points and grabbed five rebounds. Mayes added 10 rebounds.
Johnson capped his night with a open-court dunk in the fourth.
"We got a fast break, and I was wide open, so I put it down," Johnson said.
Ellis Moody scored 19 points for Wilson, and Antwaun Johnson added 17 points, nine rebounds, four steals, three assists and two blocked shots. Randall Poindexter scored 11 points and grabbed seven rebounds.
"We've got to get more efficient with our man-to-man offense," Cherol said. "We were out of sync tonight, but I'm proud of how our kids fought back. But Fitch did too many good things tonight -- they're a really well-coached team."
scalzo@vindy.com