Thursday, February 21, 2008
The Falcons held a 17-12 halftime lead in the Division I secfional game.
By CHUCK HOUSTEAU
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
CANTON — The Austintown Fitch Falcons did all they could to frustrate the top-seeded Massillon Perry Panthers and its 7-foot center, Kenny Frease, in their Division I sectional tournament game at the Canton Civic Center Wednesday night.
The strategy nearly paid off as Fitch led the Panthers 17-12 at halftime before dropping a hard-fought 50-26 decision.
Perry (18-2) outscored the Falcons 38-9 in the second half.
Fitch (4-17) employed a deliberate offense throughout the game and held Frease, a Xavier University recruit, to just four points in the first half by collapsing on him with a triangle-and-two defense that seemed to confuse the Panthers.
Andrew Warren, at only 5-11, drew the assignment of guarding Frease and harassed him throughout the first half.
The Falcons, however, couldn’t maintain the strong shooting that got them the five-point lead at the break and Perry began to pull away.
Frease scored 16 points in the second half to finish with 20 points and 10 rebounds.
“I’m so proud of these guys tonight,” said Austintown Fitch coach Roger Day. “They played their hearts out and that’s all you can ask.”
The Falcons played their best basketball of the season in the tournament, beating East Monday night before throwing a scare at the Panthers.
Day said he couldn’t imagine a better scenario of the first half of the Perry contest.
“It was picture perfect,” Day said. “We couldn’t have drawn it up any better.
“The players did an outstanding job of executing the game plan and we really seemed to have [Perry] confused.”
Perry coach Rob Toth said the Falcons were impressive in the first half.
“They had a nice game plan and we didn’t adjust very well,” Toth said. “We were tentative on the offensive end in the first half.
“In the second half we made a commitment to get the ball into Frease.”
Fitch fell behind the Panthers 6-2 but then tied the game on baskets by Jon Ballard and Mike Miles.
The Falcons took their first lead of the contest on a basket by Warren at the buzzer that gave Fitch a 10-9 lead.
Fitch’s defense was even more outstanding in the second quarter as they limited Perry to just three points.
Meanwhile the patient Falcon offense got baskets from Joe Reedy, Nick Crum and two free throws by John Williams.
Warren, Ballard and Miles all shared scoring honors with six points each while Reedy pulled down six rebounds.