Second half dooms Fitch against Jackson

February 5, 2011 at 12:00a.m.

Austintown

Austintown Fitch played a solid first half against Federal League leader, Jackson, but followed that with a mediocre third quarter and fell to the Polar Bears 72-34.

Already leading 29-17 at the half, Jackson went on a 15-2 spurt to start the second half, and outscored Fitch 28-9 in the quarter.

The Polar Bears (11-3, 6-1 Federal) clinched the No. 1 seed in the conference tournament that begins next Tuesday.

Jackson coach Mike Fuline said energy level was the difference in the third quarter. “As simple as it sounds, we turned up our energy level a bit and we played harder in the second half,” he said. “We have a tendency not come out ready, but we woke up in the third quarter. Suddenly shots start going in and we start getting fouls called on them because we played harder.”

For Fitch, coach Jason Baker said the second half was in stark contrast to the first.

“I thought in the first half we did mostly everything we wanted,” he said. “We executed and moved the ball well. To start the third quarter we got two open shots for our best player, both went back rim and they scored four points in transition. From there on our transition defense was terrible.”

Jackson made nine of its 21 shots from long range, four of which came in the third quarter. Four Polar Bears scored in double figures.The team was led by Michael Shull’s 15 points. James Feller and Josh Henniger added 14 points each, and Steve Griffin chipped in 10 points.

The Polar Bears have had a balanced scoring attack most of the year, Fuline said.

“We’re led by Shull, who’s the only starter with experience from last season, and he’s an excellent shooter,” he said. “But we have three or four other guys who can put the ball in the basket for us.”

Fuline said defensively they wanted to make things difficult for Fitch’s Dan Chepke and Jonas Ballard.

“We had [James] Feller tag Chepke,” he said. “James is our glue guy and I thought he did a good job of making Chepke take challenged shots.”

Ballard led Fitch with nine points—all of which came on three-point goals—but hit only 3-of-10 from the field. Chepke was limited to four points, and shot 1-of-8.

The Falcons have a short break before they face Jackson again next Tuesday in a first round Federal League tournament game.