By Mark Carpenter-
It was the classic case of basketball “jet lag”. After an exhausting Friday night of Homecoming and a county rivalry game with North Adams, the West Union Dragons had no time to think about that as they had to turn right around and open up the 2019 Coach Young Classic at noon on Saturday. The schedule makers did Coach Austin Kingsolver and his squad no favors as they battled another group of Dragons on Saturday, these from Fairland High School and it was fairly obvious that the fire-breathers from Adams County were more than a bit winded.
The West Union offense is usually up tempo and high-scoring but on Saturday they struggled and only managed a season-low 29 points as they drooped a 43-29 decision to the other group of Dragons in green.
“When you play back to back with a tough, physical conference game the night before and tack Homecoming on top of that, and then have a game at noon against a good, fundamentally sound team, this will happen,” said Coach Kingsolver after the loss. “We had watched film on Fairland and we knew they were going to slow down the pace and be very deliberate. We tried to pressure them full court even when we were tired, but if we didn’t, they kill the clock and we have no chance to comeback.”
“Fairland is a good, young team and one of the most fundamentally sound teams I have seen. We just have to keep getting better and I tell them before every game we just have to go 1-0 today and keep getting prepared for tournament time.”
In the first quarter of their mid-day contest, neither team set the nets on fire as a very deliberate Fairland offense got a three-pointer from Aiden Porter on their opening possession, but West Union responded with back to back buckets from Bowan Tomlin and Zane Kingsolver to take what turned out to be their only lead of the game at 4-3 with five minutes to go in the first period.
As the West Union squad then went ice cold in a three-minute scoring drought while Fairland went on a 7-0 run, capped by a Clayton Thomas trey, to take the lead for good at 10-4. The final points of the opening frame came with 2:25 left, a Tomlin bucket that made it 10-6 Fairland after one.
The Dragons from Lawrence County got the first two scores of the second quarter and eventually went up 16-8 before a Cameron Campbell trey got the West Union five back on track. After another Fairland bucket, the Adams County Dragons seemed to grab a second win, going on a 7-0 run, culminated by a Tomlin three that tied the game at 18 with 1:27 to go in the half. Fairland’s Ian Chinn hit two free throws with 52.4 seconds left to send his team to the locker room with a two-point advantage, but it looked like some of the momentum might be shifting West Union’s way.
After the halftime break, the momentum did shift, but instead right back to Fairland, who opened the third quarter on a 6-0 run to extend their advantage to 26-18, and West Union never seemed to fully recover. A bucket by Conner Campbell with 10 seconds left in the third period pulled west Union within 30-25 but just as quickly Fairland pushed the ball up court and in the closing seconds a basket by Porter made it a seven-point difference headed to the fourth.
The Fairland lead quickly expanded to double digits early in the fourth against a weary West Union squad, as a three-pointer by Matt Mondlak made it 37-25. Back to back buckets from Jacob Polcyn put Fairland up 41-27 as the outcome was no longer in doubt. The final two points of the West Union Saturday came on free throws by Braxton Blanton and Conner Campbell as West Union dropped its fourth in a row and fell to 6-8 on the year with the 43-29 defeat.
In the win, Fairland was paced by 11 points from Polcyn, with Thomas adding 10.
On a sluggish day, West Union was led in scoring by Tomlin’s 11 points, with Cameron Campbell, Conner Campbell, and Zane Kingsolver each scoring 5.
Coach Kingsolver’s troops did get back on the winning track on Tuesday night as they traveled to Portsmouth West and dealt the Senators a 52-36 defeat, pulling within one game of .500 for the year. The Dragons will be back in Southern Hills Athletic Conference play on Friday, Jan. 25 when they travel to Lynchburg, a team they defeated 83-55 back on Dec. 18.
Fairland
10 10 12 11 —43
West Union
6 12 7 4 —29
Fairland (43): Polcyn 5 1-2 11, Porter 4 0-0 9, Hunt 1 0-0 2, Mondlak 1 0-0 3, Chinn 1 6-6 8, Thomas 4 0-0 10, Team 16 7-8 43.
W. Union (29): Cameron Campbell 2 0-0 5, Blanton 0 1-2 1, Neal 1 0-0 2, Tomlin 5 0-0 11, Conner Campbell 2 1-2 5, Kingsolver 2 1-2 5, Team 11 3-6 29.
Three-Point Goals:
Fairland (4)- Porter 1, Mondlak 1, Thomas 2
W. Union (2)- Cameron Campbell 1, Tomlin 1
