Gallia Academy 46 a final
... excellent game between 2 very good basketball TEAMS in the nightcap of opening night at the Convo & Basketball 30 ... great to hear Lou Horvath on the PA . see the many basketball fans from all over SEOhio in attendance tonight, so many coaches, hoops fans made their way to the Cheap Seats tonight - I felt right at home in my usual seat ... the basketball did not disappoint !
... Coach Eversole's Falcons jumped out to an early lead - looking like FU was going to runaway and hide in this one ... the Fairfield Union boys dropped 4 threes in the opening quarter as Spencer Conrad and Lucas Thompson got on track ( both had been struggling from the field in the last 3 games for FU) Conrad hitting for 2 triples, Thompson 1 and the underrated PG for FU Evan Conley added the 4th three of the quarter ( FU was 4/6 from behind the 3 point line in the 1st) ... the inside matchup between Colin Woodside for the Falcons and Zach Loveday began with CW taking it to the rim for 4 points in the period before Loveboy rejected the 6-5 big man in the paint to stop the FU assault ... Gallia Academy was led by Cory Call's 5 points ... Zach Loveday & Justin McClelland added 2 each ... GAHS went 1/3 from the FT line in the first which ended up being the ONLY FTs the Blue Devils would take for the entire game ... FU 16 GA 9 after 1 ... Quarter 2 had Gallia chipping away at the FU lead outscoring the MSL Champs 16-12 in the qtr. ... the GA boys started to get comfortable taking the ball to the rim for 10 points ... Cory Call added 7 pts in the quarter (12 for the half which ended up being all he would score in the game) ... Caleb Henry put up 4 pts , along with Loveday's 2nd fg of the game which was his only contribution offensively for Gallia Academy ... Lucas Thompson kept the hot hand for FU dropping 2 more treys (3 for the first 2 qtrs) and Evan Conley's 4 points finished off the scoring for FU ... Fairfield Union 28 Gallia Academy 25 at intermission ... after the early hot hand by FU to open the game the Gallia defense was making it hard for the Falcons inside as FU was only able to get to the rim inside for 8 points in the middle quarters ... Zach Loveday the 7-1 sophomore had 5 blocks in the first 3 quarters of play as the big man in the middle for GA & his teammates held FU to 6 points ALL courtesy of Colin Woodside who with his 6 points in the 3rd became the ALL TIME leading scorer in FU history ... while holding the Falcons to 6 points GA added 11 in the period as 4 Blue Devils contributed to the qtr total - Evan Wiseman 4, Justin McClelland a trey, 2 points each by Henry & Blouir ... Gallia Academy 36 Fairfield Union 34 end of 3 ... even though the scoreboard showed a low scoring game - if you were watching , both teams were very deliberate & patient with the ball on offence ... both teams shared leads in the 4th ... Gallia taking a 5 point advantage on 2 occasions but each time FU fought back with buckets to close the margin tying the game at 41 with 3:37 to play ... the FU push was spearheaded by 2 key buckets in the paint by Houston Harrah, Spencer Conrad's 3 matched a triple by GA's Kaden Thomas ... the final push by FU had Evan Conley taking over, connecting on 2 key fgs and going 4/4 from the charity stripe to give the Falcons the 3 point advantage with 8 seconds to play 49-46 ... Gallia Academy had the ball with a chance to tie as the final 3 point attempt for GA deflected off the front iron as time ran out ... Fairfield Union 49 Gallia Academy 46 a final ...
...Pfloyd's Official "unofficial" Napkin Stats - Gallia Academy
Scoring ... Justin McClelland 13, Cory Call 12, Caleb Henry 8, Evan Wiseman 4, Zach Loveday 4, Kaden Thomas 3, Logan Blouir 2
3 Pointers ... 5/13 ... Justin McClelland 3, Cory Call 1, Kaden Thomas 1
FTs ........ 1/3
TOs ....... 7
PnP ..... 11fgs/22 points in the paint
Transition Buckets ... 1 fg/2 points in transition
... 93bulldog asked me if Gallia was going to be my Preseason #1 for the 2018-19 season ? ... I gave him the "I will need to look at them & others " answer BUT the Blue Devils return all but 2 players who saw the court tonight ... 7-1 Zach Loveday anchors the GA returnees Henry/McClelland/Blouir/Call ... definitely Elite 8 material in the preseason ... GA did a great job of pulling Colin Woodside out of the paint defensively as Loveday took the high post most of the game which allowed the GA perimeter players to get into the paint without dealing with the 6-5 Woodside ... GA a solid team deserving of their Elite 8 spot THIS season to end the year ...
... Pfloyd's Offiical "unofficial" Napkin Stats - Fairfield Union
Scoring ... Evan Conley 15, Lucas Thompson 11, Colin Woodside 10, Spencer Conrad 9, Houston Harrah 4
3 Pointers ... 7/16 ... Lucas Thompson 3, Spencer Conrad 3
FTs ..... 6/6
TOs ... 8
PnP ...9 fgs/18 points in the paint
Transition Buckets ... 0
... Congratulations to Colin Woodside on becoming the Fairfield Union all time leading scorer ! what a gutsy performance as the FU big man has been in and out of the hospital, to the emergency room throughout this past week ... CW was IN the game almost the entire game - as GA went inside to their 7-1 soph immediately when CW went to the bench ... Woodside gave up only 1 fg to Loveday all game ... a great visual for FU fans tonight as both Thompson and Conrad found the bottom of the net 3 times each from downtown ... Congratulations to the Falcons as they survive and advance to take on Fairland in the District finale ...
