McKinley runs past Fitch, 57-42

The Falcons are 0-7 in
Federal League games.

By GREG GULAS

VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT

AUSTINTOWN — In what could best be described as a game of runs, it was the final one of the game that proved costliest for the Austintown Fitch High basketball team.

Terrell Lipkins scored 22 points while Canton McKinley held a decided rebound advantage as the Bulldogs defeated the Falcons, 57-42 in a Federal League boys basketball game Thursday at Falcon Gymnasium.

The Bulldogs (4-11, 2-5) handed Fitch its seventh straight league loss. The Falcons are 2-12 overall.

“It’s been like that for us all season long,” Falcons coach Roger Day said. “We’ve been real close but need to find a way to finish the game.

“We were beaten at the buzzer by Lake, were up on Hoover late in the game and now tonight,” Day said. “Our kids know what to do and I am proud of their hard work and effort each and every time we hit the court.

“The truth of the matter is I am sure they are tired of me telling them how close they are to finishing the game. We’ve just been too inconsistent in that area and it has hurt us.”

The Bulldogs, playing without forward James Hall who was nursing a sprained ankle, looked to Lipkins to pick up the scoring and rebounding void created by his absence.

The junior guard responded with a game-high 22 points, four assists and five rebounds to pace the Bulldogs.

“Without James in the lineup, everyone needed to pick up the slack,” Lipkins said. “The big guys needed to crash the boards while the guards needed to penetrate and create some space.

“Fitch is a scrappy team so I just took what they gave me. Fortunately, we were able to score and create a few runs of our own so we didn’t have to play catch-up.”

Jon Stockman helped the Falcons to the early 6-0 lead, hitting his first two shots of the game from beyond the arc.

The Bulldogs didn’t break into the scoring column until the 5:19 mark of the quarter, that coming on a Lipkins 3.

Lipkins then added six more points in the quarter as McKinley went on a 10-3 run for a 10-9 advantage after the first quarter.

Six players scored at least a bucket for Canton McKinley in the second quarter, offsetting two 3s from Jon Ballard which allowed the Bulldogs to build a 25-18 margin at the intermission.

Four points by Stockman and a 3-point bucket by Ballard helped the Falcons cut the margin to 27-25 at the 5:41 mark of the third period, but McKinley went on a 9-0 run (keyed by five points from Lipkins) for a 42-31 lead with one quarter remaining.

Two 3s from Stockman and another by Mike Miles brought the Falcons to within two (42-40) to start the final quarter, but that would be as close as they would get. The Bulldogs then went on a 13-0 run, scoring 15 of the final 17 points of the game.

“This truly was a game of runs for both teams,” McKinley coach Greg Malone said. “Fitch did an excellent job of adjusting to us in the second half, but the key for us was our second chance points after intermission.”