CFS held off a late third quarter rally to beat Hickman County 67-60 in Draffenville on Monday. The Falcons trailed by as many as 14 points in the second quarter, coming back to tie the game at 42 to end the third. Hickman took their first lead of the game at 46-44 in the fourth but the Eagles finished it out down the stretch at the free throw line.
Led in the win by Luke Grigg with 20 points, he was 12 of 15 attempts at the line, hitting key free throws in the closing minutes when it counted most along with teammates Andrew Allen who was a perfect 8/8 and Isaac Hovekamp 8/11. As a team, the Eagles were 30 for 36 to continue their recent success at the stripe.
Coach Tyler Ryan is thrilled with his teams results from the foul line saying, “We stressed it all year. Starting the year we were not shooting very well…it was only around maybe 60 percent as a team. Preseason we set goals to be 70 percent plus as a team. I don’t know what we were tonight but I don’t remember too many misses.”
In their last four games including Monday, the Eagles have hit 84 of 103 at the line for an average of 80 percent.
“In a game like this when they’ve got multiple shooters…multiple threats, every single free throw – really in any game – is going to be big and tonight especially”, Ryan said.
CFS forced three Hickman turnovers to start the game, making good at the other end on two for a 4-0 lead that was quickly cut to one point on a 3-pointer by Kelen Johnson. Andrew Dunning hit his first of four first half 3-pointers to give CFS a 7-3 lead. Allen, Dunning and Hovekamp combined for the next eight points to put the Eagles up 15-8 on their way to lead 19-10 at the end of the first quarter.
Dunning opened the second quarter scoring with his second 3-pointer followed by two more that gave the Eagles their largest lead of the game at 30-16. The Falcons closed the gap to cut the CFS lead to 31-25 at halftime on a 9-1 run.
Garrett Ward, one of Hickman’s leading 3-point shooters, hit his first three of the game to cut the CFS lead down to four points at 35-31 and he finished the third quarter out with his second of two threes in the game to tie it up at 42.
“We knew we had to focus on #21 (Ward) and #11 (Jackson Midyett)”, Ryan said. “I’ve coached against Jackson…who will probably go on and play college ball somewhere. He used to be what Ward is but he’s expanded his game…he looks to drive now…he drove several times on us. His game used to be shooting threes from three or four feet deep, which he can still do, but he’s just expanded so we knew if we focused on #11 and #21…that if we could contain them we’d be okay.”
CFS held Ward to six points and Midyett to 10. Midyett’s points per game average coming into Monday’s game was just over 18.
After taking their first lead at 46-44, Hickman led twice more before a basket and foul on Grigg tied the game at 52 with 3:36 to go. Allen put CFS back up by two and it was tied again on a basket from Midyett.
Grigg scored the next three CFS points from the foul line to lead 57-54 and their final 10 points came on free throws interspersed with a couple of Hickman 3-pointers from Jason Hayden and Sam Dodson.
“We just tried to stay positive, focusing on what we can control and we did that”, Ryan said. “Patience…especially when we have a lead – even if it’s two points – we don’t want to force anything. They’ve grown so much just this season in that, understand the clock in situations…so they’re taking big steps forward and it’s showing.”
The Eagles improve to 6-4 and will be in action again on Friday when they travel to Bowling Green to take on Foundation Christian Academy.
Hickman 10 15 17 18 – 60
CFS 19 12 11 25 – 67
Hickman: Johnson 15, Prince 14, Midyett 10, Hayden 7, Ward 6, Dodson 3, Newton 3, Naranjo 2
CFS: L. Grigg 20, Allen 16, Dunning 16, Hovekamp 10, E. Grigg 3, Space 2
CFS: FG 16/46, 3 Pt 5/18, FT 30/36, Reb 25
