43
Mahone’s last shot nets Fitch a comeback win
By Brandon JUDEH
AUSTINTOWN
With only seconds remaining in a tie game, the Fitch High boys basketball team got the ball to their hottest shooter, Will Mahone.
“The play just kind of happened, I saw the pick, got the ball and I put it up and as soon as it left my finger tips I knew it was going in and we won it at the buzzer,” Mahone said.
His hot hand helped the Falcons (2-3) to a dramatic 52-49 win over the Newton Falls Tigers on Tuesday night.
Looking at the score late in the third quarter, a Fitch win seemed improbable as the Falcons were down by 11 after the Tigers hit five consecutive shots.
The Newton Falls (4-1) rally came after a technical foul on their 6-foot-4 senior forward Cody Dillon and it seemed that they would run away with the victory.
Fitch, however, had other ideas.
“Nate Blair seemed to get in Dillon’s head a little bit out there and the technical occurred,” Fitch coach Brian Beany said. “Blair did a great job of playing defense and getting in his head all night.”
After cutting the Tigers lead to six heading into the fourth quarter, the Falcons clamped down on defense and held Newton Falls to only eight points in the final period.
In fact, the Tigers didn’t hit a single field goal in the final 3:38 seconds, propelling the Falcons to the comeback.
Mahone led all scorers with 23 points and hit three of his four three pointers in the fourth quarter.
“All five of our games have been close, so we have the experience in close games — that helped a lot,” Mahone said. “I haven’t been hitting the mid-rangers, but I have been hitting the threes well.”
Also chipping in with a big game for Fitch was Dan Chepke with 14 points, 10 rebounds, three assists and a big dunk that ignited the crowd toward the end of the third quarter.
Fitch started the game with a 6-0 lead. The fast tempo of the first quarter would change drastically in the second.
The game turned into an all out defensive slugfest with the Tigers scoring 10 points and the Falcons scoring only five, giving Newton Falls the 22-20 lead at the half.
Leading the way for the Tigers was Dillon with 13 points, four rebounds and two assists. Junior Dale Kernen chipped in with 12 points and two assists.
Beany feels that his team is on the right path and felt that things really clicked for them in this game.
“We lost our first three games by a combined 11 points and won our last two by a combined three points. All the games have been close and if a few things would have gone different we could be 5-0,” Beany said. “We knew that it was going to take a couple wins like the one tonight and the one against Hubbard to get things going for us.”