RAVENNA, OH- The Field Falcons (2-11) traveled to James L. Coll Gymnasium in Ravenna on Wednesday evening for a date with the Ravenna Ravens (4-10). The Ravens stole the first matchup on December 14th in Brimfield 63-59. Both teams were looking to snap a 3-game losing streak.
It was a sloppy start to this one as Ravenna jumped out to an 8-4 lead midway through the opening quarter. Field would then go on a 7-0 run capped off by a Grady Eader and one to take an 11-8 lead. They would close the quarter scoring the last 4 points as they took a 15-10 lead after one. Eader scored 7 points in the quarter. Nigil Williams also had 7 points for the Ravens.
Field came out strong to start the second quarter as they scored the first six points making it a 10-0 run going back to the end of the first quarter. That spurt put them up 23-10. They would maintain a 13 point lead until the Ravens went on a 6-0 run which included a pair of free throws stemming from a technical foul on Falcons coach Alex Blake. Ravenna ended the half outscoring Field 16-7 including six of the final eight points to make it a six point game. Field led 32-26 going into the half. I asked coach Blake about his message to his team at halftime after Ravenna made the second quarter run.
"The message was to keep it simple, today was simple," said Blake. "Slow the basketball down and keep it simple. Trust the process and believe in each other. Those are the three things we talked about...simple, believe and trust."
The Ravens came out of halftime scoring six of the first eight points to close to within two points at 34-32. It was a back and forth next four minutes as the Falcons held their slim lead. Ravenna again closed to within two at 40-38 on a Nigil Williams bucket with around two minutes to play. Field scored five of the final seven points to take a 45-40 lead into the fourth quarter. Ben Stayer came up big with 8 points in the quarter for the Falcons.
The Falcons opened the final quarter on a 6-2 run taking a nine point lead at 51-42. Ravens buckets by Jaxon Kelly and Dylan Carrozzi closed it to 51-46, but a big and one conversion from the Falcons Sam Confer and huge three ball by Trevor Dixon pushed the lead to double digits at 57-46 with 3:40 to play. The Ravens would cut it to seven at 57-50 after an Austin Marshall score inside. Grady Eader would then hit a big dagger three for Field making it a 60-50 game with 2:15 to play. The Ravens would not score again as the final three points came via the free throw line for Field as they closed out the big road win 63-50 avenging an early season loss to the Ravens on their home floor.
Ben Stayer scored 12 of his game high 16 points in the second half for the Falcons as he went to work down low. I asked Stayer about his big second half performance.
"I was just getting boards and putting them back up," said Stayer. "I knocked down four free throws...it was just a great team win."
Nigil Williams had a nice game in a losing effort for Ravenna scoring 13 points and grabbing 8 boards. The Ravens left a lot of points at the free throw line converting only 4 out of 15.
Field looks to carry their momentum into Streetsboro on Friday night when the face the Rockets while the Ravens will look to rebound at Coventry.
Unofficial stats:
Field:
Ben Stayer: 16 pts
Grady Eader: 13 pts
Trevor Dixon: 11 pts
Nick Papiska: 8 pts
Ravenna:
Nigil Williams: 13 pts, 8 reb
Bryant Thompson: 8 pts
Dylan Carrozzi: 8 pts
