FREDERICKTOWN — There are few events in life that are etched in memories not only of individuals but also of entire communities.

The Fredericktown 2025-26 basketball campaign is one of those memories. The Freddies finished their regular season 22-0 on Tuesday night with an exclamation point — a 72-35 thrashing of the Mount Gilead Indians.

“To my knowledge, there has never been an undefeated regular season,” coach Derek Dibling said. “We talk about these guys being a part of rare air. Someday they will look back and know how special this was.

“I’m just proud of these guys and it is an honor to be a part of all of this.” 

Part of Fredericktown’s perfect regular season was a 14-0 mark in the Knox Morrow Athletic Conference, good enough for the outright title.

“We had a great crowd, and they (the team) really crank it up for the fans and the fans do a great job of supporting them, it’s just kind of a feel-good situation,” Dibling said.

The Freddies’ defense pitched a shutout in the first period holding a 23-0 lead through the first eight minutes.

It wasn’t until 7:23 of the second quarter that Mount Gilead’s Brogan Pfleiderer hit a lay-up making the score 25-2.

Just when things didn’t seem like they could get much worse for the Indians, they were whistled for a technical foul, sending Fredericktown’s Carson Rinehart to the charity stripe.

After hitting both free throws, the home team got the ball back. The Freddies capitalized and with 6:10 remaining before intermission, they had built a 31-4 lead. 

With 35 seconds remaining in the first half, Gavin Toombs, turned part acrobat, part contortionist to avoid an attempted block, hit a layup and gave his team a 47-15 lead at the break.

The home team picked up in the third quarter where they left off before the break, never taking their feet off the gas, with 6:22 remaining in the third stanza they had built a 52-18 lead.

Tourney ready

The Indians are 16-5 overall, and 9-5 in conference play. But they had no answers for Fredericktown.

“We just talk about being consistent,” Dibling said. “We do not want to get into bad habits. We play hard and that is why we put some of those younger guys in.”

With 1:40 left in the game, the starters were pulled in order to give everyone a share of the victory.

“We wanted to give them an opportunity to get meaningful minutes  and for them to get to play hard,” the coach added. 

Fredericktown begins tournament play on Feb. 28 at 1 p.m. at home against Marion Pleasant.

“There’s a bigger mountain to climb, It’s been about mentality all year, you play one game at a time and get ready for the next one and the next one’s the most important,” Dibling said.

“You have to build momentum; they call it March Madness for a reason.”

Carson Rinehart

Carson Rinehart was voted player of the year for the KMAC, He said that he had mixed feelings when he learned of the honor.

“I was sort of expecting it, I have worked hard all year and it was just good to see the results pay off,” the junior said.

He didn’t receive any official notification.

“I actually showed up to school and my friend Zane Luckmeier told me and I was totally in shock,” Rinehart said.