WARDSVILLE - After playing just two days previous in the championship game of the Eugene Tournament, there were some questions about how the regular-season meeting between the Blair Oaks Falcons and Eugene Eagles would play out.
After a similar result - but in more convincing fashion - both head coaches agreed Blair Oaks answered the bell better.
The Falcons followed up their 74-67 title-game victory on Saturday with a 75-52 decision Monday night, using a huge third quarter to get the better of the Eagles once again.
"We just didn't match their intensity," Eugene head coach Craig Engelbrecht said. "You think about the environment on Saturday night and everything was energized, then I thought (Monday night) they still played with a lot of energy and we didn't.
"That kind of set the tempo early and from that point on it seemed like we were on our heels and they were going full-bore ahead."
Blair Oaks scored the game's first six points, and while Eugene rallied to tie it with six of its own, the Falcons then got seven unanswered to take the lead for good.
"It would be hard to replicate the atmosphere from two days ago, so you're playing with different emotions, really," Blair Oaks head coach Ryan Fick said. "But I thought we had good energy early."
Blair Oaks eventually took a 15-9 lead after one quarter, with Eugene making just 3-of-13 shots (23 percent), including 1-of-10 on 2-point tries.
The Falcons then outscored the Eagles by a bucket in the second quarter to lead 31-23. At intermission, the Eagles were just 7-of-28 from the field (25 percent) and had 10 turnovers.
"I felt like we were lucky being only down eight at halftime, because we didn't play well in the first half," Engelbrecht said.
The Falcons got hot from everywhere in the third quarter, outscoring the Eagles 25-13. Blair Oaks was 5-of-7 on 2s, 4-of-7 on 3s and 3-of-3 from the free-throw line.
"We knew Eugene would make an adjustment from Saturday, as far as our bigs go," Fick said. "They did a pretty good job of swarming our bigs when they caught it. There was nothing easy for those guys tonight.
"We told the guards to be ready, because they were going to have opportunities to knock some shots down, and we did that. We had some guys step up and hit some perimeter shots."
In the third, C.J. Closser drilled a pair of 3s, while Cody Alexander and Jordan Hair had one each.
"You've got to give a lot of credit to C.J.," Engelbrecht said. "We were trying to concentrate on stopping the high-low game, which just killed us the last time, and when that happens, you give up some open shots from the outside. And he knocked down some open 3s.
"That's what we wanted to know - if they have both the inside and outside game - and they answered that quite glowingly."
With the lead never dipping below 13 the rest of the game, Blair Oaks was able to get plenty of playing time for its bench players down the stretch.
The Falcons got huge games from their two post players. Owen Luebbering racked up a game-high 22 points and snagged 10 rebounds - nine of them on the offensive end - and Jason Rackers scored 10 points and yanked down a game-high 12 rebounds.
"That's two nights in a row they've both given us double-doubles and another important thing about bigs is they are really good passers," Fick said. "They do a good job of finding the open guy, and they especially did that when Eugene was in the zone, and we did a good job of playing inside-out."
Joining them in double figures in scoring was Closser, who racked up 16 points. James Bishop grabbed eight rebounds of his own to help Blair Oaks have a 43-32 edge on the boards.
"We rebounded better tonight," Fick said. "We cut Eugene's offensive rebounds in half from Saturday night, and that was one of our biggest goals going into the game.
"Eugene does such a good job of chasing down rebounds. That's part of their offense - they make a living off of second-chance points and we knew we had to do a better job than we did the other night."
Eugene (3-2) was led by Chase Dickerson's 13 points, while Blake Rains and Mason Kirkweg had 11 apiece. The Eagles host Eldon on Friday.
"I think Blair Oaks is going to be one of the best teams in the area, I imagine they're going to end the year with a very good record," Engelbrecht said. "So we're not disappointed with where we're at, but we just need to get better. ... That's kind of our goal right now - to see what we can become later in the year."
Blair Oaks (4-0) is off until Dec. 15 when it hosts South Callaway.
In Monday's JV game, Blair Oaks won 61-28 to move to 2-0 on the season. Dylan Skinner and Tim Fick had 17 points apiece to lead the Falcons.