Saturday, January 17, 2009
Boardman’s 10-point victory over Fitch extended a positive streak.
BOARDMAN — Boardman High coach Jim Goske said he thought about going into the stands following his team’s win over Austintown Fitch and offering the fans a refund.
“It was that ugly,” Goske said of the Spartans’ 50-40 victory over rival Fitch in a Federal League contest Friday night at Boardman.
“We’ll take the W,” Goske said. “Fitch did some things defensively that bothered us. You have to give them credit for making it an ugly game and we just didn’t play very well.”
The win gave the Spartans (4-7, 1-3) their first league win and a modest two-game winning streak after a “good” win over Hudson on Tuesday.
“I feel like we’re starting to gain some confidence now,” Goske said. “We’ve been playing well lately but haven’t been able to get many wins.
“Tonight, we won when we didn’t play very well.”
The game had all the makings of a Boardman-Fitch classic.
The contest was tied at 38-38 with three minutes remaining before the Spartans pulled away behind the strong inside play of juniors J.T. Moore and Chase Hammond.
Moore scored 10 of his 17 points in the fourth quarter while Hammond added five of his 17 in the period.
The two forwards were very effective scoring inside against a small but agressive Falcons defense.
“We were right there,” Fitch coach Roger Day said. “It was a typical Fitch-Boardman rivalry game.
“I knew it would be a physical, hard-nosed game and it was. We just couldn’t find a way to make the plays when it mattered down the stretch.”
The Falcons (2-9, 0-5) last tied the game at 38 on a 3-point basket by John Williams with 3:19 left before the Spartans pulled away.
Two baskets by Moore opened up a 42-38 lead before Fitch’s DeAndre Richardson scored with 1:59 left to cut the lead to two points.
Boardman scored the last eight points of the game on baskets or free throws by Moore and Hammond.
“That was an area where we definitely thought we had an advantage,” Goske said of the inside mismatch. “Their guards played well but we wanted to try to take advantage of them inside and I think we did that especially in the second half.”
Day thought the Falcons played well against Boardman’s superior height advantage.
Fitch countered with a quicker group of defenders led by Terry Terrigno, Eric Braxton, Shane Stevens and Williams to try to hold off the Boardman forwards.
“I thought we played them tough all night even on the inside,” Day said. “Our kids fought the entire game and I’m proud of their effort.”
Fitch was led by Stevens who had nine points while Williams and Mike Miles added eight points each.
The teams battled evenly throughout the first half although Boardman had leads of 10-9 after one period and 22-19 at halftime.
Boardman opened up several four-point leads in the third quarter but Fitch battled back behind some key baskets by Terrigno and Stevens to briefly grab a 34-33 lead heading into the final period.