The Blair Oaks Falcons were playing a neutral-site game Saturday afternoon, but you sure couldn't tell by the way they shot the ball.
After taking a little bit to get adjusted to Rackers Fieldhouse while playing in the Central Bank Shootout, the Falcons looked right at home while shooting a scorching 21-of-30 (70 percent) from the field in the final three quarters.
The torrid offensive attack saw Blair Oaks go up by as many as 40 points before cruising to a 74-40 win against the Union Wildcats.
Leading the charge for the Falcons was Thomas Verslues, who pumped in a game-high 18 points. After missing his first shot of the game, he hit his final six, including a 4-of-4 effort from 3-point range.
"Sometimes you just feel it, and sometimes you have those nights where you're just not doing too well," said Verslues, a 6-foot-3 senior. "Nights like tonight are a real confidence booster. But I'm one of those guys who, no matter how many shots I miss, I'm not going to stop pulling the trigger."
Verslues wasn't the only Falcon with a hot hand. Dylan Skinner hit 6-of-8 shots on his way to 13 points, Jason Rackers also had 13 on a 6-of-9 shooting effort and Braydan Pritchett hit all six of his free-throw attempts on his way to also scoring 13.
"We have really become a very unselfish team," Blair Oaks coach Ryan Fick said. "We share the ball well, we make the extra pass. When the guys have the confidence in each other, that the next guy can knock the shot down, it's a lot easier to make that pass."
The Falcons should have known it would be a good offensive night after it took them just four seconds to score their first basket of the game. While the Wildcats controlled the opening tip, Skinner was the one who emerged with the ball after a scramble, and he dropped in a layup.
But scoring didn't come so easily for either team the rest of the quarter, as the period was a bit of a ragged affair. Blair Oaks trailed for the only time of the game at 9-8 before starting a 19-4 run bridging the end of the first quarter and the start of the second.
"Offensively we got off to a slow start," Fick said. "But we were getting good shots out of our offense. They just weren't falling early on. But we continued to do a good job on the defensive end."
Most notably, the Falcons held Union senior Ethan Hughes to well under his season scoring average.
"The whole effort started defensively with holding Hughes to three points and the job we did as a team on him," Fick said. "We also were doing a good job of limiting (Union) to one shot on that end.
"We were running well, we just weren't converting in transition. Once that picked up, we were able to extend the lead."
After Union finally stopped the run with a layup and a free throw, Blair Oaks put together a 10-2 spurt to close the half. That gave the Falcons a 37-18 lead heading to the locker room.
"We're a really hungry team," Verslues said. "When we get on runs, it's hard to stop us. We go 100 miles an hour down the floor. We put it all together tonight."
The Falcons then hit their first six shots of the second half to build the lead, which reached 66-31 heading to the final quarter.
All of the fourth quarter was played with a running clock due to the mercy rule. Blair Oaks' biggest lead came at 73-33 with 4:14 left on a layup by Britchett.
"You see Braydan Pritchett with 13 tonight and that's two or three games in the last week or so where he's been in double digits," Fick said. "That now gives us six guys who on any given night have the capability to score in double digits."
Ten different players scored for Blair Oaks, which is ranked ninth in the state in Class 3.
"It helps to have a full bench," Verslues said. "There are some teams that just have starters, but I trust in everyone down the bench. When everyone can play a part in a team win, it's great."
Blair Oaks (17-3) returns to action at 8 p.m. Tuesday at Eldon.