Preview: Austintown-Fitch Falcons vs. Hickory Hornets
The Austintown-Fitch Falcons will be home for the holidays to greet the Hickory Hornets at 7:00 p.m. on Tuesday. Keep an eye on the score for this one: both teams posted some lofty point totals in their previous games.
It may have taken overtime to finish the job, but Austintown-Fitch ultimately got the result they hoped for on Saturday. It was close, but they ultimately received the gift of a 57-54 win from a begrudging Falconssquad. Given their advantage in MaxPreps' Ohio basketball rankings (they are ranked 104th, while Mayfield is ranked 646th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
Austintown-Fitch's win was the result of several impressive offensive performances. One of the most notable came from Deshawn Vaughn, who scored 21 points. That's the first time this season that Vaughn scored 15 or more points. The team also got some help courtesy of Allen Hill jr, who scored 14 points along with eight rebounds and five blocks.
Meanwhile, Hickory unfortunately witnessed the end of their three-game winning streak on Tuesday. They fell to New Castle 69-63. Despite running the score up even higher than they did last Saturday (55), Hickory still had to take the loss.
Austintown-Fitch's victory was their third straight on the road, which pushed their record up to 4-1. Those good results were due in large part to their offensive dominance across that stretch, as they averaged 53.7 points per game. As for Hickory, their defeat dropped their record down to 3-1.
