Blair Oaks boys get past Boonville in Tri-County opener

Players for the Blair Oaks Falcons and the Boonville Pirates meet in the handshake line following Friday night's game at Blair Oaks High School in Wardsville. (Greg Jackson/News Tribune)
Players for the Blair Oaks Falcons and the Boonville Pirates meet in the handshake line following Friday night's game at Blair Oaks High School in Wardsville. (Greg Jackson/News Tribune)

WARDSVILLE -- The offense was sluggish for much of Friday night’s game for the Blair Oaks Falcons.

The defense, however, never wavered.

Blair Oaks held the Boonville Pirates to a season-low in the scoring column, opening Tri-County Conference play with a 45-38 victory at Blair Oaks High School.

Blair Oaks coach Ryan Fick simply told his team to “find a way” to win.

“We struggled offensively, but give a lot of credit to Boonville,” he said. “They guarded better tonight than I had seen them guard on film.”

Blair Oaks attempted just 40 shots in 32 minutes and was just 1-of-7 from 3-point range.

“They did a really good job of switching screens,” Fick said of Boonville’s defense, which held the Falcons in the 40s for the fourth time this season. “Anywhere Zach Henry went, they had a body on him.”

Boonville shot 39 percent from the floor, but the Falcons committed just six fouls and didn’t let the Pirates get to the free-throw line all game.

“Defense is what we’re going to hang our hats on,” Fick said.

Boonville led 7-4 midway through the first quarter. Blair Oaks held the Pirates scoreless for the next six-plus minutes and went on a 9-0 run to end the opening quarter to take a 13-7 lead.

“Some of the offensive frustrations in the first half were that we got stagnant, we were watching the guy with the ball dribble and try to create something,” Fick said. “We didn’t have any movement away from the ball.”

Henry scored eight of the Falcons’ 10 points in the second quarter. Although the Blair Oaks senior missed all three attempts from 3, he finished with a game-high 23 points on 8-of-16 shooting.

“It’s no secret, he’s at the top of the scouting report,” Fick said. “Teams have done a really good job defensively on him.”

Leading 23-20 at halftime, the Blair Oaks offense was stagnant again to open the second half, going the first four minutes without a basket.

Boonville, meanwhile, went on an 8-0 run, getting back-to-back baskets from Evan Bishop to take its largest lead of the game at 28-24.

Fick called a timeout with 4:17 left in the third and challenged his players to match Boonville’s intensity and enthusiasm.

“I talked about pride, I talked about listening to their crowd and listening to their bench,” he said. “Boonville was excited to be playing this game.”

Blair Oaks responded with a 10-2 run to end the third quarter, taking the lead for good on a pair of free throws by Dylan Hair with 1:11 remaining. Chase Schnieders added two more free throws in the final seconds to go into the fourth with a 34-30 lead.

Hair opened the fourth quarter with a dunk off a steal and Henry scored on a drive to the basket to give the Falcons their largest lead at 38-30.

“Dunks are always a momentum play,” Fick said.

Boonville closed the gap to 38-36 on a baseline drive and a layup by Caidyn Hazel with 3:38 to play, but the Pirates made just one basket the rest of the way.

Henry’s basket with 6:20 to play was the Falcons’ final basket of the game, but the Falcons made 7-of-9 free throws in the final 2:48. Blair Oaks shot 16-of-21 at the charity stripe.

Hair also reached double figures with 12 points for the Falcons.

Boonville (5-7, 0-2 Tri-County) was led by Garrett Hundley with 11 points and Hazel with 10 points.

Blair Oaks (7-4, 1-0 Tri-County) continues conference play Tuesday at Hallsville (10-1), which won 62-43 Friday at California for its eighth straight win. The freshman game starts at 5 p.m., followed by the JV and varsity games.

“Conference games this year, they’re going to be a battle night in and night out,” Fick said. “It’s a really even conference from top to bottom.”

In Friday’s JV game, Blair Oaks defeated Boonville 39-29 to improve to 8-3. Brenden Rackers led the Falcons with 12 points.

Blair Oaks started Friday’s tripleheader with a 57-19 victory in the freshman game. The Falcons were led by Logan Hoffman with 16 points and Carson Luebbering with 11 points.

The freshman team (9-1) plays Monday at Fulton.