Lake County Sentinel
Fairport's Trusty second half domination leads to 79-67 win over Geneva
BY TIM SHIRER
SPORTS EDITOR
One night after taking down the Cornerstone Christian Academy Patriots 79-65 the Fairport Harding Skippers (10-7) were back inaction, this time at Geneva to take on the Eagles (1-8). After a first half where the Skippers were outplayed by the Eagles, they stormed back in the second half to win the contest 79-67.
Early in the game it looked as though the Skippers had played the night before as they started off slow scoring only 16 points in the first quarter and getting outrebounded 9 to 6 by the Eagles who took a 19-16 lead into the second quarter.
Things did not get any better in the second quarter for the Skippers as they were once again outscored in the quarter by the Eagles and trailed 38-30 at the half. The Eagles outplayed Fairport in every phase of the game in the first half. The Skippers shot 40% from the field in the first half while the Eagles were shooting well at a 57% clip. Geneva outrebounded Fairport 17 to 10 in the first half. The second half was yet to come.
There has really been one constant so far in 2021 in this world of uncertainty and that is that the Skippers are a second half team. Tonight, they showed their fans and everyone in attendance proof. Trailing by eight points when the third quarter began just 4:09 into the quarter the Skippers had tied the game at 43-43 on layup and free throw by Senior Dominic Trusty. Trusty was on fire in the second half scoring 14 second half points. Just fifty-two seconds later the Skipper took their first lead of the game which they would never relinquish at 45-43 when Junior Sam Honkala drained a layup with 2:59 left in the third quarter. The third quarter ended with the Skipper leading 56-46 completely stunning the Eagles, outscoring them 26-8 in the period. The Eagles who had dominated the boards in the first half were completely overwhelmed by the Skippers in the third quarter as Fairport outrebounded them 14 to 5. Also, Fairport’s defense picked up allowing the Eagles on three field goals in the quarter for a shooting percentage of only 20% while the Skippers netted 9 of 17 for 52% from the field.
The Skippers continued to be relentless in the fourth quarter building their lead to 19 points with 3:38 left in the game when Honkala drained a free throw to give the Skippers a 71-52 lead. Appropriately Trusty scored the final points of the game with :03.7 left on the clock to finish game with 27 points which lead all scorers.
Junior Ayden Richmond led the Eagles in scoring with 17 points in the losing effort.
Other high scorers for the Skippers were Senior Chris People with 19, Junior Joey Tanker with 14 and Honkala with 13 points.
The Skippers will be in action again on Wednesday night as they travel to Andover to play the Pymatuning Valley Lakers at 5:15 p.m..
tshirer@lakecountysentinel.com or follow Tommy on Twitter @TBBucsTim also follow The Sentinel on Twitter @LCSentinelcom or on Instagram @lakecountysentinel
POSTED 02/02/2021 23:27
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Photo by Tim Shirer
