SOUTH POINT — It was the much anticipated round two between the Fairland Dragons and South Point Pointers.

And much like the first meeting, a standing room only crowd saw the Pointers pull away late to stay undefeated with a 55-45 win.

South Point began the fourth quarter with a 33-32 lead, but Fairland’s Matt Bloomfield scored on a layup to give the Dragons a 34-33 lead. However, South Points Chase Kratzenberg came right back with a three pointer to give the Pointers the lead for good.

“We got the lead at 34-33, and Kratzenberg comes right back and hits a three” Dragons coach Chad Belville said. “I think that was the play of the game.”

Fairland tied the game at 40-40 with 3:00 to go, but South Point went on a 5-0 run culminating with a Beau Weed layup and foul.

However, Pointers Todd Mayo was looking for a rebound dunk and hung on the rim and was assessed a technical foul. After a lengthy break, the officials counted the Weed layup.

Hatfield made the two technical free throws to cut the lead back to three, but the Dragons would get no closer. South Point would close the game out on a 10-3 run, mostly on free throws to seal the win.

Fairland opened the game on a 4-0 run only to see the Pointers tie the game at 4-4. The Dragons would hold the lead throughout the first, but never got up by more than three points.

South Point took its first lead when Mayo got a steal and raced down for a one-handed dunk. Fairland scored on two consecutive trips on layup’s by Ethan Long and Zach Jordan to regain the lead, 17-14.

Mayo hit a 3-pointer at the buzzer to tie the game at 17-17 to close out the first quarter. Mayo scored 15 of South Point’s 17 in the first.

The pace would slow down as the Pointers outscored Fairland 12-8 in the second quarter to take a 29-25 lead to the locker room.

“We tried to give a few different looks because we knew what they wanted to do with (Michael) Lamb and (Cole) Hatfield” Pointers coach Gary Norris said. “I thought after the first quarter our defense was pretty much outstanding.”

Coming out of the break, the slow pace would continue as both teams combined to make five field goals, and the last made field goal of the quarter came with 4:02 to go on a 3-pointer by Lamb.

South Point entered the fourth quarter with a 33-32 lead.

“We had the game to one point, but went seven straight trips and didn’t get anything. That was big,” Belville said. “To get the stops was big for us, and we had chances; but we could just not get over the hump.”

“They (Fairland) played good defense, and they came out in that box-and-one in the third quarter and slowed us down some in the second half,” said Norris. “We were able to adjust, and Chase (Kratzenberg) made a big three in that stretch and had an offensive rebound put-back.”

Mayo led all scorers with 33 points and also had eight rebounds. Beau Weed finished with 10 points and was 6-of-9 from the free throw line.

The Dragons were led by Michael Lamb who finished with 15 points and 10 rebounds. Cole Hatfield shot all four free throws for the Dragons and made three as he scored eight points.

Fairland178713=45

South Point1712422=55

FAIRLAND (14-4, 5-3): Zach Jordan 3 0 0-0 6, Matt Bloomfield 2 0 0-0 4,Chris Ward 0 0 0-0 0, Cole Hatfield 2 1 3-4 8, Adam Berry 1 0 0-0 2, Michael Lamb 7 1 0-0 15, Dustin Bumgardner 4 0 8, Ethan Long 1 0 0-0 2, Chad Fisher 0 0 0-0 0. Totals: 20 2 3-4 45. Fouls: 18. Fouled out: Dustin Bumgardner. Rebounds: 17 (Bumgardner 4, Lamb 10, Hatfield 2, Long 1). Assists: 9 (Hatfield 5, Jordan 3, Fisher 1).

SOUTH POINT (17-0, 8-0): Chase Kratzenberg 2 1 0-0 5, Kyle Hughes 0 0 0-0 0, Beau Weed 2 0 6-9 10, Todd Mayo 11 3 8-11 33, Zach Woody 1 0 0-0 2, Drew Lynd 0 0 0-0 0, Corey Taylor 1 0 3-3 5, Jordan Foster 0 0 0-0 0. Totals: 17 4 17-23 55. Fouls: 11. Fouled out: None. Rebounds: 19 (Taylor 5, Weed 2, Mayo 8, Woody 3, Kratzenberg 1). Assists: 2 (Mayo 1, Taylor 1).