AUSTINTOWN Falcons wear out weary North Canton

Greg Mayes scored 11 points and grabbed 12 rebounds in the 43-39 victory.
By GARY HOUSTEAU
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
AUSTINTOWN -- If it looked like North Canton Hoover played an overtime game on Friday night when they stumbled out of the gate against Austintown Fitch, it's because they did.
The Vikings made the first points of the game and then fell behind the Falcons 21-4 with just over four minutes remaining in the second quarter. Hoover, which lost to Uniontown Lake on Friday, got its game legs back, taking a 28-26 lead into the fourth period, but was eventually turned away by Fitch in a non-conference match-up, 43-39.
After a 4-4 tie, the Vikings didn't score again until Steve Reifsnyder hit a pair of free throws, two of his nine points in the game, with 3:25 remaining before halftime to make it 21-6.
"I was thinking that our kids were intimidated and I was thinking they were tired," said Hoover coach Sam Pepper. "We had a rough overtime game [Friday] and it was a league loss that we should have won, and I think they just came out flat. You do that sometimes."
Fitch scored seven unanswered baskets in the run, then went almost eight minutes without scoring.
"We stopped doing the things that got us to the 21-4 lead," said Fitch coach Gary Conroy. "We stopped doing everything that you could possibly think of. We stopped executing, we stopped rebounding, and a couple of times there was a situation where one guy shot the ball and four guys were watching. So we stopped playing basketball."
Fighting back: After the two Reifsnyder free throws, Hoover hit the next five baskets to cut the deficit to 21-16 with 5:20 remaining in the third quarter. Greg Mayes scored to stop the Vikings' 12-0 run. But Fitch, out-scored 16-5 in third, could only muster a 3-pointer by Rob Patzak the rest of the quarter.
"I think we did a lot better job on defense against Mayes in the second quarter and in the second half," Pepper said.
Kyle Adams hit three consecutive field goals for Hoover, including two 3s, at the end of the third quarter to give the Vikings their first lead since 2-0. Adams led all scorers with 14 points.
Pulling away: But Fitch was able to turn the game back around with their defense, igniting a 10-0 fourth quarter run. Jason Aikens' steal and lay-up gave the Falcons a 36-28 lead with 5:06 remaining.
"We went into our trapping game during that stretch and we put Jason Aikens and Dajwan Stubbs in and those two can run, they can cover some distance," Conroy said. "When we turned it up we got some turnovers, we got them to start throwing the ball around, and I think we got it back to the tempo we wanted, compared to their five-on-five tempo."
Mayes, who gave Fitch the lead back for good at 30-28 with a basket during the fourth quarter run, followed that up on their very next possession with a rebound and a thunderous dunk.
Mayes, who had five blocks in the game, led Fitch with 11 points and 12 rebounds. Kevin Johnson had six rebounds for the Falcons, while Tim Reynolds had 10 rebounds and Gregg Ross had eight for the Vikings.