Colts outrun Freddies in fast-paced Route 13 clash

FREDERICKTOWN – Standing in his office less than 10 minutes after the final horn sounded on Tuesday night, Fredericktown head coach Derek Dibling wore a blank expression.

It was usually his team that pushed the pace, his team that used tempo to its advantage. Fredericktown is the fastest team in the KMAC by far, relying on its depth and quickness to wear opponents down.

That was not the case on Tuesday, in a packed home gym against a 12-2 Clear Fork squad that holds a comfortable lead in the MOAC as February nears. The tables had turned.

“We’re fast, but they’re faster,” Dibling said.

In fact, “fast” may be an understatement. Clear Fork was blistering. The Colts used full-court man pressure to force Fredericktown (8-6) into turnovers, which led to easy buckets at the other end. Even when Fredericktown got a shot off – and sometimes, even after a made bucket – Clear Fork was first down the court.

The Colts took the lead with 4:46 left in the first quarter and never looked back. They took down their Route 13 rivals on the road, 81-62, running their win streak to three games.

The fastest Colt on the court Tuesday was junior Brennan South, who scored twice in less than 10 seconds late in the second quarter. He came off a down screen and knocked down a wing three, then retreated just long enough on defense for teammate Jared Schaefer to steal the ball and pitch it up to him for another walk-in longball. Swish.

South was magnificent, scoring 29 points on 9-of-15 shooting. He was able to attack the basket with ease and finish at the rim, converting on all five of his layup attempts. He was accurate from beyond the arch and at the free throw line as well, where he went 7-for-8.

READ: Spreading the Wealth: South leads balanced Clear Fork attack

And when he wasn’t knocking down shots, South was on the assisting end. Fredericktown switched to zone defense early in the second quarter to try to contain Clear Fork’s speed, but South was far too cunning.

He methodically picked apart the zone, one time slicing through it by splitting the top two defenders and dropping an effortless no-look pass to AJ Blubaugh under the basket for two points.

“I just think we fed off him a little bit there, especially in the first half,” Clear Fork head coach Steve Bechtel said of South. “I mean, he put the foot on the gas and he was attacking the way that we want (him) to. He was able to get some easy baskets, get some open threes. He hit a couple in there in transition as well.”

The Colts and Freddies traded buckets early, as a Jake Partington corner three made it 7-6 Freddies with 5:30 left in the first quarter. But when Clear Fork turned up the heat, Fredericktown struggled to keep up.

The Colts went on a 9-0 run midway through the quarter that put them up 20-9. All nine points were scored in transition (or at the free throw line as a result), and three different Colts scored during the 3-minute stretch. It was a run that summed up Clear Fork’s season so far; no one on the team averages more than 13 points per game and the Colts lead the MOAC in assists.

“We’ve been balanced all year, it’s great. I mean, they are a very unselfish group,” Bechtel said. “They like to share the basketball and really don’t care who scores for us, as long as it’s somebody in a Clear Fork jersey.”

Clear Fork took a six-point lead into the second quarter and a 15-point lead into halftime after South’s second quarter burst.

The Clear Fork lead would balloon to 23 points early in the third quarter before Fredericktown fought back. Senior Nick Cunningham scored 23 of his 25 points in the second half, including eight straight that brought the home Freddies back into it late in the third period.

Fredericktown cut the deficit to eight with 4:40 left in the game, but Clear Fork responded with solid ball control and relentless defense, scoring the next five points to silence the crowd. Cunningham was nearly unstoppable in the fourth quarter, when he scored 12 points in every kind of way. But it wasn’t enough.

“Hats off to them, they played harder than we did. For whatever reason, we just seemed a little flat,” Dibling said. “We just didn’t do enough good things throughout the game – turnovers, missed free throws… just missed opportunities, really.”

Mid-week, non-conference games are often overlooked and undersold. Not this one, Bechtel said afterwards. Just 13 miles separate the two schools, which made Tuesday night’s triumph all the more special.

“It’s nice to come down here and win on the road,” the coach said, grinning.

While Clear Fork will resume conference play against last-place River Valley on Friday, Fredericktown will host sixth-place Danville. The Freddies are currently in a three-way tie for second place in the KMAC, as Highland sits two games ahead in first.

Danville will be looking for revenge after Fredericktown beat them by 18 back in December. The Freddies will have to learn from Tuesday’s loss and regroup quickly, Dibling said, if they want to keep that from happening.

“They’re a resilient group,” the third-year head coach said of his team. “We’ll bounce back. They’re competitors. Gotta get ready for Danville Friday, don’t have too much time to pout and feel sorry for ourselves. I’m pretty sure Danville’s not going to feel sorry for us. We gotta get back on track.”

BOX SCORE

Clear Fork: Brennan South, 29 points; Brady Tedrow, 16 points; AJ Blubaugh, 11 points; Jay Swainhart, 9 points; Jared Schaefer, 6 points.

Fredericktown: Nick Cunningham, 25 points; Jake Partington, 11 points; Lincoln Cunningham, 8 points; Terry Fearn, 6 points; Clem Cunningham, 4 points.