Falcons Hold Off James Wood Boys In Opener, 61-56

Posted: December 3, 2014
By JERRY HOLSWORTH
Special to The Winchester Star

WINCHESTER — Although neither team played at its best, both the James Wood and Fauquier boys’ basketball teams came away from their season opener with things their coaches can be happy with, but also a lot of room for improvement.

“I thought that the fact that this was a close game from start to finish really helped both teams,” said Colonels coach Tim Wygant. “You really don’t learn much from a 20-point blowout.”

Although the Falcons led for most of the game and eventually won 61-56, Fauquier was never able to feel safe about its lead until the final seconds of the game.

“Even though we built a pretty good lead a couple of times, we’d look up and Wood had fought hard and got back into the game,” said Falcons coach Wayne Brizzi. “They really fought hard the whole game, and really pushed us.”

The Colonels were able to maintain a narrow lead through most of the first quarter thanks to poor shooting by Fauquier (1-0). The Falcons missed their first three field-goal attempts and failed to connect on a free throw in four attempts during the quarter.

But with Wood leading 6-0 with 5:14 left in the quarter, the Falcons demonstrated why no lead was safe for the Colonels. Two quick 3-pointers by Fauquier guards Ardeshir Tabrizi and Liam Holland narrowed Wood’s lead to 8-6 in less than a minute.

Fauquier outscored the Colonels 7-1 over the last 4:23 of the period to pull ahead 10-9 by the end of the quarter.

Neither side was able to pull away through most of the second quarter. But with Wood (0-1) leading 16-14 with 1:34 left in the first half, the Falcons exploded for a 10-0 run that left the Colonels trailing 24-16 at intermission.

This time it was free-throw shooting by the Falcons that made the difference. After going 0-10 over the first 16 minutes of play, Fauquier hit three of its last four free-throw attempts of the half during the run. Grant Keithley also scored on a 3-pointer during the run, the first of four he made for the night.

“We really need to work a lot on our free-throw shooting,” Brizzi said. “We started making them there at the end of the half, and I was very grateful for that.”

The last two quarters were a case of Wood fighting desperately to get the lead only to be foiled by 3-point shooting and clutch free-throw shooting by the Falcons late in the game.

The Colonels pecked away at the Fauquier lead through the first five minutes of the third quarter, and finally tied the game 29-29 on a jumper by Vincent Lew. The Falcons responded with a pair of buckets by John Smith and Frankie Strano, and a 3-pointer by Keithley to pull back ahead 36-29.

Trailing 41-33 with 1:34 left in the third quarter, the Colonels again rallied to narrow Fauquier’s lead to 41-37 by the end of the quarter.

Wood used a tenacious defense and the free-throw line to keep the game close in the final period. The Colonels forced five Falcon turnovers in the quarter, and hit their first six free-throw attempts. That helped Wood narrow Fauquier’s lead to just 50-49 with 3:56 to play.

Unfortunately for the Colonels, the poor-shooting Falcons found the range from the line and nailed 7 of their 9 free-throw attempts, including 5 of 7 over the last minute of play to preserve their lead and get the win.

“We need a lot of work on our free throws too,” Wygant said. “We can’t miss a lot of free throws and miss layups the way we did and expect to win the game. Fauquier executed a lot better than we did. But we’re very young and the kids are eager to play at this level. I thought they put a lot of effort into the game, and played hard throughout.”

Smith led the Falcons with 18 points, including a clutch 3 for 4 from the line in the final quarter. Keithley finished the night with 14 points for Fauquier.

Branson Ratlief led the Colonels with 12 points, but three other Wood players also finished the game in double figures. Brady Hepner, Hinebaugh, and Kobe Grimes all had 10 points for Wood.