WARDSVILLE - Slow starts and close games just aren't Blair Oaks' things.
The Falcons scored 23 points before the School of the Osage Indians even put up five shot attempts Friday night in a 72-42 win to secure their fourth straight Tri-County Conference championship.
"I'm proud of this team," Blair Oaks coach Ryan Fick said. "If you look at last year, graduating seven guys, we've got a bunch of guys that haven't played a lot of varsity basketball. But this team, I'm proud of the way they've gelled and come together."
Eric Northweather, one of three seniors honors before the game for Senior Night, scored the game's first eight points with a two-handed dunk and a pair of 3-pointers from the left wing.
Jacob Rademan and Jackson Widhalm were also honored prior to the game.
"He came out aggressively on Senior Night," Fick said of Northweather, who scored all 15 of his points in the first half. "It's good that to we got off to a fast start again. We've done that the last few games."
Last week against Eldon, the Falcons began the game on a 16-3 run. In their next game against Jefferson City, Blair Oaks led 22-6 by late in the first quarter. Then Tuesday night, the score was 29-8 by the end of the first quarter of a 101-50 victory at California.
"I think we can still show up every day with the attitude that we can continue to improve, and this group has," Fick said following the team's 15th straight win and 29th consecutive victory in regular season conference games. "They've continued to practice hard regardless of whether we've been in a tough game the night before or not. We show up and practice."
Quinn Kusgen, who scored a game-high 28 points thanks to an 8-of-12 clip from 3-point range, capped off the first-quarter scoring with a 3 from the top of the key to lead 26-2.
"He's playing with a lot of confidence right now," Fick said.
Alton Drace came off the bench to score Osage's first points of the game at the 2:15 mark of the opening quarter. He led the Indians with 10 points.
The margin reached 32 at 40-8 at the 2:52 mark of the second quarter when Northweather poked the ball away and scored a layup.
Drew Edwards and Drace followed with back-to-back 3s for Osage.
Grant Steen added a corner 3 late in the quarter to make the halftime score 48-19.
The Indians outscored the Falcons by a pair of points in the third to enter the fourth down 60-33.
Blair Oaks (23-2, 7-0 Tri-County), the top-ranked team in Class 3, begins postseason play Tuesday in the District 9 Tournament at Eldon.
The Falcons will take on No. 8 seed South Callaway at 4 p.m.
"You've gotta be ready to play every night from here on out," Fick said.
Osage ends the regular season at 5-18 overall and 3-4 in the conference.
The Blair Oaks JV team concluded the season with a 47-31 win Friday.
Bryson Jeffries scored 16 points and Zach Henry added 11 as the Falcons finished with a 13-6 record.
Blair Oaks won the freshman contest 69-32 to end the season 13-8.
Dawson Skinner, Alec Wieberg and Holden Brand each scored 12 points.