CADETS COME TO OHIO TO FIND A WIN
By Ty Bartell
AUSTINTOWN OH- Early season basketball can make for a really fun and exciting time with the amount of non-conference games that are featured early on. You get potential glimpses at what could be a playoff opponent down the road, you can test your team thus preparing them for conference-play and you can possibly see something you have never seen before. Tuesday night in Austintown, Ohio the intriguing matchup on the hardwood was a battle between Ohio and West Virginia when The Austintown-Fitch Falcons hosted in The Linsly Cadets out of Wheeling, West Virginia, Both teams showed their athleticism and talent early on, as highlight reel play after highlight reel play occurred between the two squads in the opening quarter. The Cadets would pull away slightly, holding a 13-9 lead after a quarter.
Rolling into the second, The Falcons battled back with some key turnovers turned into points as well as getting Linsly into foul trouble to get Fitch to the line. This time around, The Falcons would hold the advantage after the second quarter with a 22-21 lead over Linsly at halftime.
The back-and-forth contest ensued into the second half when everytime one team would score, the other would have a response. One team would go on a run, the other made sure they had a running partner, keeping pace with one another the whole way with Linsly holding the one point advantage 37-36 after three quarters. However, the forth would prove to be unkind to The Falcons as Linsly opened up the frame with a 9-0 run in the first two minutes of the quarter off the back of 6 turnovers by Fitch in that time. Linsly would go up by double-digits and never look back, outscoring Austintown 20-11 in the fourth to claim the 57-47 win, staying undefeated and hanging the first loss on Fitch this year.
Linsly was led by Will Taylor who finished with a game-high 17 points and acted as the primary ball-handler in the second half, helping lead The Cadets to a win! Following Taylor was Naseef Lubowa who had 14 points. For The Falcons they were led by Deshawn Vaughn who had 13 points, with Marcel Finkley behind him with 12 points and Allen Hill with 10 points.
Fitch (3-1) will try and get back on track with their next contest coming on Saturday, December 16th when they hit the road to battle The Mayfield Wildcats (0-4). Also in-action again on Saturday will be The Linsly Cadets (3-0) when they stay on the road to battle The Harrison-Central Huskies (3-0). Stay updated with all Austintown-Fitch athletics this winter sports season with live games, scores, stats, stories and more on YSN!
