Unbeaten Green Devils turn back Dragons, 91-69

Published 3:26 am Monday, March 9, 2009

ATHENS — If this had been baseball, the Fairland Dragons’ bullpen would remind fans of the Cincinnati Reds.

The Dragons were unable to stop the scoring runs of the unbeaten North Adams Green Devils and it resulted in a 91-69 loss Sunday in the Division III district semifinals at the Ohio University Convocation Center.

“They just had too many runs. They would have a big run and we would have a run to get back in it, but they just had more of them,” said Dragons’ coach John McClung.

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A 15-footer by Cole Hatfield got Fairland within 12-8 midway through the first quarter and then North Adams went on a short run to lead 17-8.

Cris Ward — who hit five 3-pointers to score 15 points — hit a trey to get Fairland within 19-13 only to have the Devils score seven straight points to go up 26-13.

Evan Salyers made three foul shots and Matt Bloomfield added another to get Fairland within 35-25. But again North Adams used a scoring spurt to take a 39-26 lead.

But a trifecta at the buzzer by Hatfield cut the deficit to 44-36 at the break.

A layup by Tyler Godby to start the second half sliced the Green Devils’ lead to just 44-38, but Kraig Unger hit two straight baskets to build a 50-38 lead.

Ward’s 3-pointer and Godby’s layup cut the gap to 63-49 with 1:37 left in the third quarter, but Tyler Jimison made a layup and then nailed a 3-pointer as the lead balloond to 68-49 just before the end of the quarter.

North Adams went on a 9-5 run to begin the fourth quarter and it was 77-54.

Hatfield was fouled while hitting a 3-pointer with 4:22 to play. He added the free throw and the 4-point play gave him 1,000 career points.

Unger’s 3-point play with 45 seconds left gave North Adams its biggest lead at 89-64.

Don Ntontolo drained a triple and added a baseline jumper for Fairland to close out the scoring.

McClung was disappointed with the loss, but not the effort, especially from his seniors.

“We didn’t quit. We went all-out the whole game,” said McClung. “It was a good year and this was a good group of seniors. Cole scored 1,000 points and they made some big runs in the tournament.”

The Dragons (15-8) reached the district tournament four straight years and they were regional semifinalists last season.

Hatfield had 19 points and Godby 11 as Fairland finished 15-8.

Unger scored 19 and Jimison and Carter Nehus 17 each for the Green Devils.

Fairland 13 23 23 20 = 69

North Adams 24 20 24 23 = 91

FAIRLAND (15-8): Zach Jordan 0 0 1-2 1, Matt Bloomfield 0 0 1-2 1, Cole Hatfield 4 2 5-5 19, Tyler Godby 5 0 1-2 11, Adam Berry 2 0 0-0 4, Cris Ward 0 5 00 15, Chad Fisher 0 0 0-0 0, Eric Salyers 0 0 0-0 0, Michael Doerr 0 0 0-0 0, Evan Salyers 3 0 7-9 13, Don Ntontolo 1 1 0-0 5. Totals: 23-50 15-20 69. Fouls: 16. Fouled out: None. 3-point goals: 8-24. Rebounds: 10 offense, 14 defense = 24 (Salyers 7, Godby 6). Team/deadball rebounds: 5. Assists: 16 (Ward 4, Bloomfield 3, Fisher 3). Steals: 10 (Godby 3, Jordan 2, Salyers 2). Turnovers: 23. Blocked shots: Godby, Salyers.

NORTH ADAMS (22-0): Sam Louden 1 0 0-0 2, Kraig Unger 8 0 3-3 19, Tyler Jimison 4 3 0-0 17, Nick Latham 2 0 2-2 6, Carter Nehus 8 0 1-1 17, Munroe Fannin 1 1 0-0 5, Chase Burns 2 2 0-0 10, Andrew Roades 0 0 0-0 0, Zach Dollich 2 0 1-2 5, Dillon Davis 0 0 0-0 0, Alex Newman 0 0 0-0 0, Drew Dollich 1 0 0-2 2, Tyler Rothwell 4 0 0-2 8. Totals: 39-54 7-12 91. Fouls: 23. Fouled out: None. 3-point goals: 6-11. Rebounds: 6 offense, 20 defense = 26 (Unger 7, Nehus 5). Team/deadball rebounds: 3. Assists: 26 (Unger 7, Louden 6, Jimison 5). Steals: 16 (Unger 7, Louden 5). Turnovers: 20. Blocked shots: Rothwell.