Fairfield Union 58 New Lexington 41 a final/D2 District 'ship

[pfloyd]

Fairfield Union 58
New Lexington 41 a final

... one of my questions about Fairfield Union the entire season when they have played quality teams has been, "Can they score enough points?" ... the answer has been "Yes" based on the fact that Coach Shaeffer's Falcons play DEFENSE ... today vs the 21-4 New Lexington Panthers the 22-3 Fairfield Union Falcons brought the D - forced NL to become a perimeter ONLY offensive team ... "defense travels" especially when playing at the Convo where the "open floor plan" - might be what young couples are looking for in a new house but not so much if you're are a high school team trying to adjust to the big floor, the" black college 3 point line" factor ... the FU defense - man 2 man - with outstanding rotations in cutting off the NL bread & butter - penetration, the spin and shoot or penetrate and dish - nonexistent ... the Napkin Stats don't lie New Lexington: 7/29 from downtown/ ONLY 3 fgs in the paint for the game/ ONLY 1 fg in transition/ 0 fgs on offensive rebounds, putback buckets ... New Lex had ONLY 3 fgs in the opening 2 quarters/5 fgs in the first 3 quarters - DEFENSE ... Fairfield Union 58 New Lexington 41 a final ...

... the Falcons set the tone for their offense jumping out early with a 3 pointer from Caleb Redding (picking up where he left off after dropping the winning 3 pointer vs Gallia Academy as the buzzer sounded to punch FU's ticket to the district semi's) ... after an NL 3 pointer by Ryan Hobbs to knot the game ... Ronnie Rowley drained FU's second triple of the qtr ... sr. 6-7 big for Fairfield Union Ted Harrah picked up a 2pt on the blocks 8-3 FU ... NL guard/forward Lukas Ratliff knocked down a midrange jumper for 2pts to pull New Lex to within 3 ... the scoreboard didn't change numbers for awhile as both teams defenses took over before Caleb Schmelzer added 2 points in the paint to make it 10-5 FU ... Fairfield Union 10 New Lexington 5 after 1 ... FU looked ready to play at both ends, great physical defense, foot action kept defenders in front of any New Lex attempt at penetration ... nothing on the inside - no passing lanes, no lanes to the rim ... no offensive boards ... in the 2nd quarter the NL offense totaled 6 points - 1 fg on a drive by sr Ryan Hobbs ... 2/2 from the FT line by both Isaiah Stevens (2pts) attempting to get to the rim and Ratliff 2/2 (2pts) ... the hot shooting Falcons continued to fill it up from behind the arc as Caleb Redding drained 3 more treys from deep (9pts in the period/12 in the first half ... 4/4 from three) ... while Redding had solved the mystery of the "black college 3 point line" factor ... 6-6 jr swing forward Caleb Schmelzer got it done in the paint for 7 points ... at 4:51 in the quarter FU was on a 9-2 run that gave them a 19-7 lead ... as the teams went to their lockers at the half FU had outscored NL 16-6 in the quarter - defense ... a defense that held NL to 1 fg in the 2nd and 3 fgs in the half ... Fairfield Union 26 New Lexington 11 at the half ... in the post season execution of game plans is a key to getting W's ... separation WITH DEFENSE ? wins 'ships ... the Falcon defense held serve as they limited the Panthers to 2 fgs - All District Selection Isaiah Stevens looked to spark the NL offense by attacking the rim - Stevens drove into the paint /got fouled ... the smooth lefty went 2/2 from the line , a drive inside for 2pts and fouled again in the paint 2/2 from the free throw stripe again 6pts ... at 1:36 on the clock FU had maintained the separation 33-17 FU ... the Falcons were led by Ronnie Rowly's 5 pts including a 3 ball/ in the paint buckets by Ted Harrah 2pts and Caleb Schmelzer 2pts and 2/2 from the line ... the quarter ended with Ratliff for New Lex draining a deep 3 pointer ... Fairfield Union 37 New Lexington 20 after 3 ... a 17 point margin ... Coach Shaeffer's troops only needed to match New Lex ... which is exactly the scenario that played out - New Lex 21 pts ( more than their 1st 3 qtrs combined 20pts) ... New Lex for the game went 7/29 ... in the 4th qtr the Panthers went yard going 5/14 with 6-4 senior Lukas Ratliff hitting 4 treys/5 for the game ... fellow sr. Ryan Hobbs added 7 pts in the period including a triple & 2/3 from the line ... Bently Hanson added the final 2 pts ... in the end - the 4th offense spurt wasn't nearly enough to overtake the defensive effort of FU ... offensively for the Falcons - FU got solid in the paint scoring from Caleb Schmelzer as the 6-6 forward picked up 3 two pt fgs in the period and went 3/6 from the line (9 pts) ... to get the W the Falcons would need to take care of the ball and hit their FTs ... taking care of the ball? they struggled with 7 turnovers / make their FT's? 13/17 from the FT line in the 4th led by sr PG Brennen Rowles going 6/6 from the stripe ... Ronnie Rowley went 2/2 / Redding 2/2 on top of a 2 pointer (4pts) ... Fairfield Union methodically shutdown the New Lex offense - forced them to be a perimeter team ... scoring too little too late in the 4th with 5 threes ... FU picked up their first District Crown since 2017 ... Fairfield Union 58 New Lexington 41 a final

... Pfloyd's official UN-official Napkin Stats - New Lexington

Scoring ... Lukas Ratliff 19, Ryan Hobbs 12, Isaiah Stevens 8, Bentley Hanson 2
3 Pointers ... 7/29 ... Lukas Ratliff 5, Ryan Hobbs 2
FTs ... 10/11
TOs ... 4
PnP ... 3 fgs/ 6 points in the paint
PnT ... 1 fg/ 2 points in transition
Pbk ... 0 fgs/ 0 putback buckets

... Pfloyd's official UN-official Napkin Stats - Fairfield Union

Scoring ... Caleb Schmelzer 22, Caleb Redding 16, Ronnie Rowley 10, Brennen Rowles 6, Ted Harrah 4
3 Pointers ... 6/9 ... Caleb Redding 5, Ronnie Rowley 1
FTs ... 16/20
PnP ... 11 fgs/ 22 points in the paint
PnT ... 1 fg/ 2 points in transtion
Pbk ... 1 fg/ 2 pts on putback buckets

... great execution of the game plan - PLAY the DEFENSE that they normally bring to the table - check ... keep NL out of the paint - check ... limit points in the paint (3fgs/6pts) - check ... force NL to live trying to beat the "black line" factor - check (took 29 threes/made but 7 - 5 in the 4th) ... the FU offense jumped out early/got separation/BEAT the "black line" factor going 6/9 from the threes ... great game by FU ... they will be coming back to the Convo Thursday to take on Tri-Valley in Regional Semi Final Action ...

[Smeltzy]

Thanks for the analysis pfloyd. It was good to see you in your usual location in the Convo. Didn't want to bother you much on a busy day but thanks for saying a few words to me. And yes, we can score more than 40 pts. Go Falcons!!!

[pfloyd]

Thanks for the analysis pfloyd. It was good to see you in your usual location in the Convo. Didn't want to bother you much on a busy day but thanks for saying a few words to me. And yes, we can score more than 40 pts. Go Falcons!!!

… congratulations to you and your Falcons !!! The Cheap Seats are for “talking hoops , touching bases with posters, fans, parents, coaches etc” ! You’re welcome in the Cheap Seats anytime !!! Good to see you ! … great game by FU !

[Chief02]

Thanks for the analysis pfloyd. It was good to see you in your usual location in the Convo. Didn't want to bother you much on a busy day but thanks for saying a few words to me. And yes, we can score more than 40 pts. Go Falcons!!!

… congratulations to you and your Falcons !!! The Cheap Seats are for “talking hoops , touching bases with posters, fans, parents, coaches etc” ! You’re welcome in the Cheso Seats anytime !!! Good to see you ! … great game by FU !

Great run down as usual Pfloyd! The environment in The Convo yesterday was amazing. Coach Shaeffer and his staff are excellent at the chess game approach in preparing their players to succeed. The boys and I will be traveling back down Thursday night. I’m assuming you will be there?

[pfloyd]

Thanks for the analysis pfloyd. It was good to see you in your usual location in the Convo. Didn't want to bother you much on a busy day but thanks for saying a few words to me. And yes, we can score more than 40 pts. Go Falcons!!!

… congratulations to you and your Falcons !!! The Cheap Seats are for “talking hoops , touching bases with posters, fans, parents, coaches etc” ! You’re welcome in the Cheso Seats anytime !!! Good to see you ! … great game by FU !

Great run down as usual Pfloyd! The environment in The Convo yesterday was amazing. Coach Shaeffer and his staff are excellent at the chess game approach in preparing their players to succeed. The boys and I will be traveling back down Thursday night. I’m assuming you will be there?

Absolutely! Pfloyd will be there !!!

[danicalifornia]

Great rundown as always

The Falcons did two things that hadn’t happened in the previous games that I saw: they didn’t have a long scoring drought and they shot the lights out from 3

They were incredibly efficient all game long and that resulted in a comfortable and impressive victory.

[alabama mike]

I was very impressed with the play of Fairfield Union yesterday. Long, athletic team.

[VetteMan]

Pfloyd, great rundown as always. FU was pretty impressive.