FITCH BESTS BOARDMAN FOR FIRST CONFERENCE WIN

By Ty Bartell

AUSTINTOWN OH- For the first time on a basketball court this season, The Austintown-Fitch Falcons and the Boardman Spartans, once again, renewed their rivalry. Both members of the All American Conference (AAC), The Falcons and The Spartans entered Tuesday evening searching for their first conference win.

The first quarter saw Boardman grab a lead off an early 8-2 run that saw four different Spartans score, eventually leading 16-11 after the first quarter of play. However, Fitch flipped the script in quarter two, outscoring Boardman 15-7 in the second to hold a 26-23 lead at the halftime buzzer.

The second half became a low-scoring defensive ballgame, with The Spartans struggling to replicate the offensive success of the first quarter, as behind a 10-5 third quarter for Austintown, The Falcons owned an 8 point advantage entering the fourth and final quarter of regulation at 36-28. The Spartans, again, came up shy of reaching a double digit point mark again in a quarter, as The Falcons were a bucket better in the fourth 10-8 to secure the 46-36 win!

Austintown was led offensively by Marcel Finkley who finished with 17 points in a Player of the Game performance! Postgame interviews with Finkley and Falcon Head Coach Brian Beany can be found below! Following Finkley, DeShawn Vaughn and E.J. Giles both had 8 points for Fitch. Boardman was led by Terrell McDowell with 13 points and Grayson Eicher with 8 points.

Fitch (6-4)(1-1) will now look ahead to Friday, January 12th when they continue AAC play, hosting Howland (5-6)(0-1) with a 7 p.m. tip-off. Meanwhile, Boardman (3-8)(0-2) will also be in-action on Friday when they travel to Warren to battle The Warren G. Harding Raiders (6-3)(1-0). Keep updates with AAC basketball this season, with live games, scores, stats, stories and more on YSN.