FAIRVIEW — Kobe Payne and Cylas Yarbrough each scored 16 points, Colt Fletcher drained four 3’s en route to 15 points, and Fairview’s varsity boys surged past Randolph on Saturday afternoon for a 63-56 victory.
The Aggies, who moved to 8-12 with the win, found themselves trailing 38-30 early in the third quarter before turning the tables.
While the home team continued to make shots, it was its terrific defense that fueled a decisive 27-7 run over a key stretch of game time.
And though Randolph trimmed its deficit to six late, Fairview held the Raiders at bay at the free-throw line.
Justin Balik credited his team’s turnaround to improved play on the defensive end.
“I feel like we did bad job guarding in the first half,” said the first-year Fairview coach. “We’re super young, so guys are getting experience. But we don’t communicate all that well right now, and Randolph is super well-coached. And when you run really good action like they do and don’t communicate well defensively, you’re going to have a hard time. But we started talking a little bit more (in the second half), and we had some guys step up and guard. We didn’t do anything differently offensively — we just started getting stops defensively.”
Cade Yeager pitched in six points for the Aggies, who also received scoring contributions from Ethan Frasier (four), Landon Smith (three) and Antonio Gambrill (three).
Saturday — January 14
Varsity Boys
Holly Pond 41, Fyffe 38
Kollin Brown: 14 points
Blake Rickard: 7 points
Carson Ryan: 5 points
Gunner McBee: 5 points
*Brown sank the game-winning 3-pointer at the buzzer
Varsity Girls
Holly Pond 54, Fyffe 40
Madison Butts: 14 points
Kamryn Tankersley: 9 points
Emma Earl: 8 points
Bai Widner: 7 points
Samantha Giles: 7 points