Cisse, Lynx pull away from Blair Oaks in second half

Eric Northweather of Blair Oaks gets ready to shoot against the defense of Moussa Cisse of Lausanne during Friday night's game at Fleming Fieldhouse.
Eric Northweather of Blair Oaks gets ready to shoot against the defense of Moussa Cisse of Lausanne during Friday night's game at Fleming Fieldhouse.

Late in the third quarter, Lausanne Collegiate 7-foot center Moussa Cisse decided to give the rim a break with a 3-pointer from the top of the key.

"We were comfortable with him taking any shots outside of five feet," Blair Oaks coach Ryan Fick said.

Cisse didn't attempt many of those.

The ninth-ranked player in the country by 247sports.com slammed home 11 dunks on his way to 26 points Friday in a 62-50 win against the Falcons in the first round of the Joe Machens Great 8 Classic at Fleming Fieldhouse.

"He's athletic, he can dunk the heck out of the ball," Fick said. "He's a 7-foot athlete."

Cisse and the Lynx out of Memphis, Tenn. trailed 5-0 in the fist minute of the game after a Luke Northweather layup and an Eric Northweather 3-pointer from the corner, but that Blair Oaks lead only lasted a few minutes.

Jalen Montgomery knocked down a 3 at the 4:29 mark of the first quarter to account for the lone lead change of the game.

About 30 seconds later, Cisse used a shot fake to get by a defender and put down his second dunk with two hands for a 9-5 advantage.

A one-handed slam with 12 seconds left made it 15-10 at the end of the opening quarter.

Blair Oaks got to within one at 17-16 when Quinn Kusgen was awarded a bucket on a goaltending call with 3:52 left before halftime.

"I thought we fought defensively," Fick said. "Yeah, he got some dunks, he's going do that but to hold them to 62 points, I can live with that."

Blair Oaks only trailed 24-20 at halftime despite making 2-of-12 from 3-point range.

"I thought we had an opportunity to maybe attack the glass a little bit, but we were a little hesitant knowing that a 7-footer is standing there and I thought we passed on an opportunity to possibly get him a cheap foul or something," Fick said. "I thought later on we did a better job of attacking the glass."

Eric Northweather picked up his third foul with 4:27 left in the second quarter and had to sit with three points.

He went on the attack in the second half, converting a three-point play a minute and a half into the third quarter and got past a double team for a two-handed dunk with 1:06 left in the third quarter.

Northweather finished with 21 points and six rebounds.

"He gained some confidence, started to put the ball on the floor and getting to the basket," Fick said.

The third quarter ended with some flair from both teams as Cisse caught a pass from the top of the key and put the ball through for a two-handed, alley-oop dunk with :10 on the clock.

Northweather then beat the buzzer with a 3-pointer to make it 50-34.

Lausanne led by as many as 22 at 56-34 following a Montgomery steal and Langston Rogers layup with 6:34 remaining.

"They started scoring in transition and we looked a little deflated," Fick said. "We took a timeout and regrouped, and I thought we did a much better job down the stretch."

Northweather then began an 8-2 run with a 3-pointer to cut it to 58-45 with 2:33 remaining.

Luke Northweather finished with a double-double with 16 points and 10 rebounds.

Cisse also recorded a double-double with a team-high 10 rebounds.

Montgomery scored 17 points and Antonio Dilworth added 13 for the Lynx, who will face Jefferson City at 8:30 p.m. today in the semifinals.

Blair Oaks (7-1) will take on Northmont (Ohio) at 5:30 p.m. today in the loser's bracket semifinals.

"A good thing about this tournament is it's over with," Fick said of the first round. "You've got to prepare on the fly and you turn around and do it all over again tomorrow."