Chance Short
chance.short@irontontribune.com

SOUTH POINT — The South Point Pointers meant business on Saturday night and carried a chip on their shoulder as they faced the top team in the Ohio Valley Conference — the Fairland Dragons.
Fairland hadn’t lost a league game since last season at the same place, South Point. The Dragons had a chance to lock up the OVC with a win on Saturday, but let it slip through their fingers 43-40.
The two teams will take another crack at each other on Feb. 18th to decide who takes the gold as they both have suffered one loss in the league and they stay on pace in the closing games of their schedule.
South Point’s Mason Kazee has become quite the closer for the Pointers as he sank 4-for-4 from the free throw line to solidify the win. This comes a night after closing out a 35-33 win at Coal Grove.
“I’ve never beat them (Fairland) before, not even in middle school,” said Kazee, “So, I definitely felt relieved.”
Kazee scored 9 points in the final quarter and made a short corner jump shot with 2:57 remaining to take the Pointers first lead of the game.
The Dragons took an early 16-9 advantage to start the game behind Aiden Porter and Clayton Thomas. The pair combined for 10 points in the first quarter.
The Pointers started chopping away in the second quarter as they trailed by just five points at the break 26-21. Austin Webb— who has signed already with West Liberty — scored 11 points through two quarters to initiate the comeback.
“It’s a great feeling to get this win after them handing it to us the last few years,” said Webb following the team’s win.
“This year’s team is very special. I’ve played with this group of seniors since buddy league and we have always been such great friends. I just love those guys and their will to win.”
South Point cut it within five after the third quarter and finished the job down the stretch. Webb had a game high 18 points and snagged down 8 rebounds as well.
Porter scored 14 points for Fairland and Thomas finished with 13.
Fairland shot just 3-of-13 in the fourth quarter as they were outscored 14-7. South Point missed just two shot attempts in the final period. Both teams were even in the round category and in the turnover margin.
Fairland 16 10 7 7 = 40
South Point 9 12 8 14 = 43
FAIRLAND (12-4, 9-1): Jacob Polcyn 0-3 0-1 0-0 0, Aiden Porter 4-6 2-9 0-0 14, Gavin Hunt 1-2 0-4 0-0 2, Clayton Thomas 2-2 3-9 0-0 13, JD Thacker 1-1 0-0 0-0 2, Jordan Williams 2-3 0-0 2-4 6, Zander Schmidt 0-2 0-1 0-0 0, Nate Thacker 0-0 1-1 0-0 3. Totals: 10-19 6-25 2-4 40. Rebounds: 27 (Williams 7). Assists: 9 (Hunt 3). Turnovers: 8. Fouls: 14. Fouled out: none.
SOUTH POINT (13-3, 9-1): Jake Adams 0-1 1-4 0-2 3, Nakyan Turner 2-7 0-2 1-2 5, Mason Kazee 2-6 1-3 4-4 11, Darryl Taylor 2-3 0-0 0-0 4, Austin Webb 6-10 2-3 0-0 18, Malik Pegram 1-1 0-0 0-0 2. Totals: 13-28 4-12 5-8 43. Rebounds: 27 (Taylor 9, Webb 8). Assists: 8 (Adams 4). Turnovers: 8. Fouls: 7. Fouled out: none.