JAGUARS POUNCE ON FALCONS EARLY

By Ty Bartell

AUSTINTOWN OH- Following 6 consecutive wins, The Austintown-Fitch girls basketball team were back at home to host another non-conference opponent. This time the competition came out of the Cleveland area with The St. Joseph Academy Jaguars coming to town! Always a great program, The Jaguars are yearly contenders for district championships!

The importance of starting out on the right foot was apparent in the first quarter as The Jaguar pounced on The Falcons early with a 7-0 run out of the gates! The Falcons would take the big initial punch and be able to battle and keep it close; however, St. Joseph Academy built a respectable 19-10 lead after a quarter. Into the second quarter, the next 8 minutes of the contest we’re closer than the first. Both teams exchanged buckets, with The Jaguars again edging out Fitch 14-13 in the quarter and built a double-digit lead at halftime at 33-23.

Fitch would get closer as the shots ran cold for St. Joseph in the third, The Falcons started heating up to take the quarter 16-13, cutting the deficit to 4 points at 43-39 Jaguars after three quarters. The fourth quarter would not be kind to Fitch, as The Jaguars locked it down on the defensive side, closing out the game with 10-5 quarter in the final frame, winning the contest without ever surrendering the advantage with the final score of 56-44.

Fitch was led in scoring by Rachel Spalding with 14 points followed by both Ayla Ray and Destanie McCullough who both had 10 points.

The Falcons (6-2) will look to get back in track when they host The Archbishop Hoban Knights (6-0) on Saturday, December 16th with a 12:30 p.m. tip-off. Catch that game plus keep updated with both The Austintown-Fitch Falcons and Archbishop Hoban Knights basketball seasons with live games, scores, stats, stories and more on YSN!