WARDSVILLE - The Blair Oaks Falcons haven't blown out many teams during their 7-0 start. That might be a good thing.
"You can work on specific situations and talk about what you want to do," Blair Oaks coach Ryan Fick said, "but all of the other stuff, the pressure of the situation and the crowd and everything, you obviously can't replicate that in practice. So to be able to have games that puts you in those situations is just going to do nothing but make us better and help us in the long run."
The Falcons began the season with two wins by at least 30 points, but they have had the luxury of working on end-of-game scenarios lately.
Blair Oaks held off Hickman for a seven-point victory two weeks ago, and is coming off two-point wins against Father Tolton, the top-ranked team in Class 3 by the Missouri Basketball Coaches Association, and Springfield Catholic.
Eric Northweather, who leads the fourth-ranked team in Class 3 with 26.4 points per game, scored the winning points in those two one-possession victories.
"You can't say enough about his abilities, and this week especially against the competition that we've played and all the athletes that have been on the floor in those games," Fick said. "You just see it in his face that he's going to make something happen."
Northweather and the Falcons don't face a typical challenge tonight in the Joe Machens Great 8 Classic at Fleming Fieldhouse. Game time is 8:30 p.m.
The Lausanne Collegiate Lynx from Memphis, Tenn. are led by 6-foot-11 center Moussa Cisse, a five-star recruit in his first season with the team after transferring from Christ The King in Queens, N.Y.
"You see video of him and he's obviously an elite prospect," Fick said of Cisse, who has offers from Kentucky, Mississippi, Georgia and Connecticut. "We're going to see him on TV two years from now, which is kind of kind of cool for these guys to play against a talent like that that they're going to be able to watch. As long as he stays healthy, he's going to play for a while."
Lausanne also brings Evansville commit Johnathan DeJurnett, a 6-7 senior forward.
Cisse, DeJurnett and the rest of the Lynx will go up against a Falcon defense allowing nearly 60 points per game.
"I'm not satisfied with the consistency," Fick said. "There are times when we're really good defensively and then there are times when we break down pretty easily."
Blair Oaks scores nearly 75 points per game, thanks to the trio of Northweather, Quinn Kusgen, who entered last Friday's win against Springfield Catholic averaging about 21 points per game, and Luke Northweather, who enters the tournament scoring 15 points per game.
Fick pointed out players such as Jake Closser, Jacob Rademan and Dylan Hair have embraced their roles.
"Eric's going to score a lot of points but other guys contributed in a lot of different ways," Fick said.
Blair Oaks and Lausanne are joined by Jefferson City (3-3) and Northmont (Clayton, Ohio) at the bottom half of the bracket.
Father Tolton (5-1), Upper Arlington (Ohio), Helias and Oxford (Miss.) make up the top of the bracket.
"Those teams don't come to this tournament if they don't think they have a chance to win it," Fick said of the out-of-state squads. "They have marquee players, they feel confident that they can come win the tournament. We've got four solid local teams, as well. It's a good opportunity for us to play somebody out of the area, see a different style of basketball."