WARDSVILLE - Jordan Hair and Cody Alexander were quite the 1-2 punch Tuesday night.
Hair scored 19 of his 20 points in the first half and Alexander had 16 of his 18 after intermission as the backcourt mates led the Blair Oaks Falcons to an 80-53 win against Hallsville.
"I hope it's a breakout game for both of them and they gain a little confidence," Blair Oaks coach Ryan Fick said.
"It reinforces what we're doing in practice, as those guys have been spending more time on the offensive side of things. Now we're going to have to balance it out a little bit and look at the defensive side," Fick added with a smile.
After a close first quarter in which Hallsville held a 17-16 lead, Hair started to heat up in the second quarter. The senior racked up 14 points in the frame to help Blair Oaks surge to a 37-28 lead at halftime.
At the break, Hair had connected on a pair of 3-pointers, five layups and one jumper.
"When Jordan Hair is able to get out and run the floor and guys are pitching ahead to him and he's finishing in transition, that's when he's at his best," Fick said. "We were fortunate that he knocked down some perimeter shots tonight early when we needed them."
The Falcons got a little more separation in the third quarter, outscoring the Indians 16-12 to lead 53-40, before Alexander came up big in the final period. He followed up a five-point third quarter with an 11-point fourth quarter. The junior repeatedly slipped through the defense to get to the basket and was a perfect 4-of-4 from the free-throw line in the final period.
"Cody did a great job of penetrating their zone and getting to the basket and finishing, or if not, getting to the free-throw line," Fick said.
His effort was part of a 27-13 scoring edge in the fourth for Blair Oaks, which led by as many as 28 points.
"Teams have done a really good job of dictating tempo against us, but tonight, after we got past their initial run to start the game, we dictated tempo," Fick said. "We beat them down the floor and didn't allow them to set the zone up. We got great looks in transition and converted those looks."
It showed on a balanced score sheet. In addition to the big nights by Hair and Alexander, Jason Rackers had 10 points and Tim Fick and C.J. Closser had eight apiece.
"We really focused on sustaining a high level of energy for 32 minutes tonight," Ryan Fick said. "I thought last week in the conference tournament we played with high energy for periods of time, but we weren't able to sustain it. Tonight at halftime, we really focused on finishing the game strong, and I thought we did that."
The Falcons also benefited from making 17-of-21 from the free-throw line.
"We've shot the ball pretty well as a team from the line and that's a great attribute to have as a team," Fick said.
Owen Luebbering racked up a game-high 14 rebounds for the Falcons, who were playing the Indians for the second time in a week after facing off in the semifinals of the Tri-County Conference Tournament. Rackers narrowly missed a double-double by pulling down nine rebounds.
Hallsville, led by former Jamestown head coach Brannon Bartlett, was paced by Tanner Beatty's 12 points. Graham Moser chipped in with 11 points.
Blair Oaks, which is now 9-3 overall and 1-0 in league play, returns to action Friday at Willard.
In the JV game, Blair Oaks won 57-30 to improve to 10-0 on the season.
Thomas Verslues led the Falcons with 14 points, while Ethan Luebbering scored 11 and Braydon Pritchett had 10.
In the freshman game, Blair Oaks won 53-33 as Pritchett scored 11 points.