The Hickory Hornets will head out on the road to face off against the Austintown-Fitch Falcons at 7:00 p.m. on Tuesday. Hickory knows how to get points on the board -- the squad has finished with flashy point totals in its past three matches -- so hopefully Austintown-Fitch likes a good challenge.
Hickory pushed their score all the way to 63 on Tuesday, but even that wasn't enough to win. 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.
Meanwhile, 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 victory was a true team effort, with many players turning in solid performances. Perhaps the best among them was Deshawn Vaughn, who scored 21 points. Those 21 points set a new season-high mark for him. The team also got some help courtesy of Allen Hill jr, who scored 14 points along with eight rebounds and five blocks.
Hickory's loss dropped their record down to 3-1. As for Austintown-Fitch, they pushed their record up to 4-1 with that win, which was their third straight on the road.
