Falcon rally puts Lake County boys in region championship game

 


Jason Peevyhouse

Editor, JP Productions Sports

The Lake County Falcons will play for a Region 7-1A Championship for the first time in 13 years as a fourth-quarter rally allowed the green and gold to overcome a three-point deficit heading into the final frame to take a 52-48 win over Middleton in the Region 7-1A Semifinals on Tuesday night at Bethel University in McKenzie.

The Falcons trailed by seven at the half but were able to cut into the Tiger lead in the third quarter. Six points each from J’Braylon Mays and Jay Ricks, along with a three-pointer by Aikee Ward, helped the Falcons cut the Middleton lead to 35-32 heading into the fourth quarter.

While holding the Tigers to 13 points for the second straight frame, Lake County got a big fourth quarter from Mays. Mays scored ten of the Falcons 20 points in the final eight minutes with Ricks tossing in five as well as the green and gold sealed the semifinal win and a berth in Thursday night’s Region 7-1A Championship Game.

Ricks led the way for Lake County with 19 points while Mays added 16 in the win.

“Just super proud of my kids because they could have laid and turned to selfish basketball when we were 5-10,” Howard said. “Now, we’re on our way to the region championship game and have won 14 of our last 15 games.”

While the second-half surge by the Falcons has seen Lake County go 14-1 over the last 15 games, Howard credits a win at Westview during the team’s 5-10 start as where things began to turn. The victory over the Chargers came without two Falcon starters against the Chargers who just got their football players back.

“If you look at last year, the game we played them after they got their football players back, they beat us pretty good,” Howard recalled. “We decided that wasn’t going to happen this year.

“Everything kind of started to fall into place after that.”

Another important note, of the team’s 11 losses this season, only one came against a Division I, Class A opponent – the Falcons’ nine-point loss to Gleason on Jan. 22.

Lake County will take on Humboldt in the Region 7-A Championship Game on Thursday night at 7 p.m. at Bethel University in McKenzie. Regardless of the outcome of that contest, the Falcons will play in the TSSAA Class A Sectional Round on Monday, March 9 either at home or at the Region 8-A Champion.

For a physical copy of this story, please see an upcoming edition of the Lake County Banner.

Coverage of this game is brought to you by:



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