By Mark Carpenter
People’s Defender
There was a lot on the line last Friday night at Peebles High School as the Indians welcomed to town the Fayetteville rockets for a battle that could decide the championship of the small school division of the Southern Hills Athletic Conference. The Rockets came into the game with a one-game lead over the Rockets, mainly by virtue of a win over Peebles earlier in the season on their home court. Now it was the turn of the Indians to play host before their own rabid crowd and they made the best of the opportunity.
Behind a trio of players in double figures and in a game that was not their usual high-scoring affair, the Tribe climbed into a first place tie in the small school division of the SHAC, hanging on late to hand the visiting Rockets a 54-51 defeat.
“I thought our assistant coaches did an amazing job scouting and preparing us for this game.” Peebles head coach Josh Arey told GoodGuysRadioTV after the big win. “I thought our kids did an excellent job down the stretch and I thought we were much better defensively taking away some of the things that hurt us the first time we played. Fayetteville was awesome defensively too, taking us out of some of the things we like to do.”
“It was a great game with a tournament atmosphere and we were very fortunate to come out on top.”
In Friday night’s match up, the Indians drew first blood, using a 7-0 run to erase an early Fayetteville lead and take a 9-6 advantage of their own after a Josh McClary three-pointer. A baseline runner by Bo Johnson and a Keegan Puckett free throw left the home side with a 12-10 lead after one quarter of action.
In the second quarter, the two teams began to heat up from long distance, combining for eight three-point goals, half of those belonging to Rockets’ junior Charlie Coffman. Peebles got two three-balls from Paxton Ryan, one from McClary and another from Puckett as the two teams literally “shot the lights out”. Puckett also added an old-fashioned three-point play as the Indians built a 23-15 lead. The Indian defense had no answer for the long distance bombs of Coffman, whose third triple of the period pulled the Rockets within 26-23. A Ryan trey was answered by the same from Coffman which sent the two teams to the halftime break with Peebles holding a slim 31-28 advantage.
Things remained tight as the third quarter progressed, neither team holding more than a five-point lead, that being Peebles at 35-30. A Bo Johnson triple put Peebles up by four before the Rockets went on a 7-2 run that included yet another Coffman three and a jumper by Korbin Strong that put Fayetteville in front 41-40 with two minutes left in the third stanza.
A Connor Gross two-pointer put Peebles back on top, but a pair of Brody Feldhaus free throws flipped the scoreboard back to the visitors. With 3.3 seconds left in the third quarter, Puckett stepped beyond the arc deep in the corner and drilled a three-point bucket to give the Tribe the lead back at 45-43.
The final wight minutes were played close to the vest, with the Indians obviously working the clock to maintain their margin while the Rockets did all they could to eliminate it. Peebles began the final quarter with a three-point bucket from McClary on their first offensive possession, only to see the Rockets get back to back offensive rebounds and scores from Feldhaus and Korbin Strong. With 3:16 to play, Johnson drained two free throws to put the Tribe up 50-47 but the Rockets’ Jack South answered to again make it a one-point game.
A clutch jumper by Johnson made it 52-49 Peebles but with 1:50 to play, Fayetteville’s Keaton Strong scored and it was back to a one-point difference. Neither team could dent the scoreboard for the next minute and a half and Fayetteville had possession with a chance to take the late lead but the Indian defense forced a five-second call for the costly turnover. The Rockets were forced to foul, sending Gross to the line with 9.2 seconds to play. The Peebles junior calmly swished both freebies and Fayetteville was left with one chance to send the game into overtime, but the Rockets misfired on a pair of three-point attempts and the Tribe escaped with the huge conference revenge win, prevailing 54-51.
The winners were led in scoring by three players who hit double figures- 15 each from Josh McClary and Bo Johnson, with Keegan Puckett adding 12 along with a team-high 6 rebounds. The Indians nailed eight three-pointers in the game and were 8 of 9 from the free throw line.
“It’s always a team effort for us, guys getting the ball to teammates for good shots,” said Coach Arey. “We have guys who can shoot it from the outside and guys who can do the dirty work and this is just a tremendous win for us.”
Fayetteville was topped by Charlie Coffman, who hit five three-point buckets on his way to a game-high 23 points.Brody Feldhaus and Jack South each scored 8 for the Rockets.
As of press time, the two teams were in a virtual deadlock at the top of the small school division of the SHAC, Fayetteville at 10-2 and Peebles at 9-2. The Rockets have one conference game remaining, hosting Manchester on February 13, while the Indians have two, at West Union on February 13 and at Fairfield on February 14.
Box Score
Fayetteville
10 18 15 8 —51
Peebles
12 19 14 9 —54
Fayetteville (51): Coffman 8 2-2 23, Feldhaus 3 2-2 8, South 4 0-0 8, Keaton Strong 3 0-0 6, Korbin Strong 3 0-0 6, Team 21 4-4 51.
Peebles (54): Knechtly 0 2-2 2, Gross 1 2-2 4, Johnson 6 2-2 15, Ryan 2 0-0 6, McClary 6 0-0 15, Puckett 4 2-3 12, Team 19 8-9 54.
Three-Point Goals:
Fayetteville (5)- Coffman 5
Peebles (8)- Johnson 1, Ryan 2, McClary 3, Puckett 2
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