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Strong second quarter powers Fitch win
By Tom Williams
AUSTINTOWN
Three nights after celebrating a thrilling victory over Lake, the Fitch High boys basketball team started sluggishly against a good Marlington team.
In the final 10 seconds of Tuesday’s first quarter, the Dukes’ Chris Andrews hit a 3-pointer for a three-point lead and a deep sigh filled the Falcons’ gymnasium. But before the buzzer sounded, the Falcons’ Jessie Driver erased it when he crossed the half-court line and banked a shot into the net.
That long-range basket launched the Falcons to a remarkable second quarter in which they limited the Dukes to two points in rolling to a 61-40 victory.
“That’s almost automatic for Jessie, he’s hit a couple of those this year,” said Alex DiFrancesco, who scored 12 points for the Falcons.
Driver, who scored 14 points and made 11 rebounds, said he wasn’t sure his shot was true when he released the ball.
“Not really,” the senior said. “I had to double-clutch it, but it felt good when it left my hands.”
Driver said better communication was the key to the Falcons’ 14-2 dominance of the second quarter that gave them a 24-12 halftime advantage.
“We talked [more], we knew where we were going to be,” said Driver of the defensive turnaround. “They were getting a lot of easy shots because we were leaving our spots in the zone.”
DeFrancesco and Andrews traded baskets to start the second quarter. Driver then connected for his third 3-pointer of the half to ignite a 12-0 run that included baskets by Anthony Pangio, Nick Pence and Jake Bullen.
“It was definitely a slow start,” Driver said of the first quarter. “We were kind of drained emotionally from that [Lake] win — I’m still actually excited about that win.
“But we got it going in the second quarter.”
DeFrancesco said the Dukes deserve credit for a strong effort.
“It was a dogfight at first,” DeFrancesco said. “Then we kind of got our legs [going] underneath us and started playing much better basketball.”
The Falcons (15-3) opened up an 18-point lead in the third quarter. Shortly thereafter, Driver committed his third foul and took a seat. The lead was down to 37-29 when Driver returned in the fourth quarter and the Falcons outscored the Dukes 24-11 the rest of the way.
“We’re at that part of the season where you’ve got to fight through some things,” Fitch head coach Brian Beany said. ”We’re coming off a big, emotional win over Lake, it’s a long season, kids are getting tired ...”
The Falcons outrebounded the Dukes 29-19 and Beany was pleased that the Dukes (14-4) didn’t have an offensive rebound in the first half. Pangio and Butcher each scored nine points for the Falcons. Thomas Mason and Andrews led the Dukes with 14 and 13 points, respectively.
“We had some breakdowns in the second half but I was pleased with our rebounding effort,” said Beany, who noted that the Falcons prevented 7-foot sophomore Jacob Sawman from scoring. “We muscled him up pretty good.