WARDSVILLE -- After graduating more than 80 percent of the team’s scoring last season, many people’s expectations for the Blair Oaks Falcons might have dropped this year.
Instead of falling off, the Falcons claimed another Tri-County Conference championship with a 54-48 win against the Southern Boone Eagles on Thursday at Blair Oaks High School.
“It says a lot about our guys,” Blair Oaks coach Ryan Fick said. “It’s no secret that we graduated over 80 percent of our scoring, seven seniors. Outside of our locker room, I don’t know if people expected much. I’m proud of our guys showing up to work every day. They had that goal in mind and they accomplished it.”
The win ends Blair Oaks’ regular season with a record of 17-9 and a perfect 7-0 in conference, but the Falcons wont have long to celebrate as they will turn around and face Southern Boone again at 6 p.m. Monday at Fatima for the start of the Class 4 District 9 tournament. Blair Oaks enters as the five seed facing the fourth-seeded Eagles.
“We’re two programs that are pretty set on what we do, especially on the defensive end,” Fick said. “There may be a couple wrinkles here and there, but for the most part I think it will look pretty similar.”
But before districts start, the Falcons had a conference championship to win.
The first half Thursday was a physical, defensive battle leading to a 22-20 Eagles lead at halftime, then Blair Oaks had its best offensive quarter so far, taking a 36-30 lead into the final quarter of the regular season.
Blair Oaks extended as far as 40-33 after Dylan Hair used on of Alec Wieberg’s game-high six assists for a traditional three-point play on a driving layup. They were three of Hair’s game-high 21 points, 19 of which came in the second half.
“It’s a matter of a guy that’s a competitor and was playing his last home game and wanted to leave it all out there,” Fick said. “… He was getting downhill, getting to the basket. He’s so athletic he can get up in the air, absorb contact and still finish.”
Southern Boone was able to fight back, cutting the lead to 43-41 after two free throws from Aidan Bukowsky, then tying the game at 47 after a Brady Dapkus 3 from the right corner, three of his team-high 15 points, off a Carter Salter assist.
But the Eagles would muster only one more point the rest of the way, a free throw from Dapkus, while the Falcons got a driving layup from Zach Henry, two of his 12 points, two free throws from Ryan Glavin and three of four free throws from Hair.
“I’m proud of our guys with the effort on the defensive end,” Fick said. “They do such a good job getting downhill, I thought for the most part our rotations were good for help defense and we rebounded fairly well.”
The Falcons jumped ahead initially, taking a 5-3 lead after Wieberg turned one of his five rebounds into a layup, then Hair did the same to create a 7-3 lead.
Southern Boone cut the lead to 7-6 after a Dapkus free throw, but Jaxon Marshall was able to collect one of his four rebounds and put up a putback as time expired to send the Falcons into the first break leading 9-6.
The Eagles fought back in the second quarter, connecting on 6-of-9 shots from the field and 2-of-3 free throws for a 16-point quarter, while holding Blair Oaks to 11, to send the teams into halftime two points apart.
Southern Boone held a 22-17 lead with 21.5 seconds left in the half after a Falcon turnover, but a travel gave Blair Oaks the ball back with :00.8 showing on the clock.
Glavin inbounded to Wieberg near midcourt and Wieberg flicked the ball out of his hands before the buzzer, throwing it hard off the backboard and through for the buzzer-beating 3.
Hair got to work quickly in the third quarter, scoring seven of the team’s first nine points, all on driving layups, to help the Falcons take the lead back and build it to 29-24.
The Falcons held their biggest lead of the game in the third quarter at 36-28 after Marshall turned a rebound into a layup with 1:45 left.
Southern Boone ends the regular season with a record of 19-10, 6-1 in conference.
“It’s unfortunate we have to turn around and play them so quickly here in four days,” Fick said. “We’ll take a look at the film, see what we can do better and they’ll do the same. Expect another matchup that looks a lot like this.”
Blair Oaks came back from a 10-point second-half deficit to win 44-42 in junior varsity action Thursday at Blair Oaks High School, ending the season with a record of 21-4 after winning 17 of its final 18 games.
Evan McCullough led the Falcons with 11 points, while Brenden Rackers hit the game-winning layup with :03 left on the clock.