Cale Polson

The halftime break did not affect Fayette’s momentum during a 61-45 win over Westran in the third-place game of the New Franklin tournament.

Leading 26-24, the Falcons closed the first half on a 7-0 run and scored the first five points after halftime. Westran finally ended its scoring drought with a 3-pointer, but Cale Polson responded in kind to put Fayette ahead 41-27 and Fayette led by double digits the rest of the way.

The 3-point line had been unkind to Polson over the past four games. The Fayette senior was shooting 65 percent from inside the line, but just 14 percent from deep over that stretch.

On Friday, Polson scored 23 points on just 10 shot attempts and went 4-6 from the arc.

“It was certainly nice to see him kind of flow through that and play as well as he did,” Fayette coach Jon Bishop said.

“It’s great to finish the week like that. We played so badly Thursday, and we’re able to bounce right back and play a good, solid team.

“We were the four seed and we ended up third. That’s always a bonus. I was real proud of the effort.”

Kyle Schleeter scored 16 points and had seven rebounds. Zach Henderson had seven points, two assists and two steals. Tyler Bartholomew led the Falcons with three assists. Freshman Ben Wells drained the first 3-pointer of his career.

New Franklin 63, Fayette 41

Kyle Schleeter scored 12 of his 14 points in the first quarter as Fayette took a 13-10 lead over the tournament no. 1 seed New Franklin, but the Bulldogs came back with a 19-4 run and went on to beat the Falcons 63-41 on Thursday.

Fayette shot 16-37 from the floor, but turned the ball over 31 times in the loss.

“You do something like that, against a team like that…” Fayette coach Jon Bishop said. “Granted, give them a lot of credit, they put a lot of pressure on us and for whatever reason, we didn’t handle their press very well. To me that was unusual for these guys, because we’ve done that better in the past.”

Josh Henderson and Cale Polson scored the only Falcon points of the second quarter, cutting New Franklin’s lead to 20-17, but the Bulldogs scored nine straight points to close out the half.

Josh Henderson was 2-2 from the field for five points and seven rebounds, but picked up his third and fourth fouls during the first ninety seconds of the second half.

Chase Allen scored four of his seven points in the third quarter. The freshman made all three of his field goal attempts, including the first 3-pointer of his career.

Aaron Barber made his first 3-point attempt of the season in the fourth quarter.

“They’re playing hard, we’ve just got to get focused and play together a little bit better,” Bishop said.

Protecting a one-point lead in the final minute, Fayette held off Sweet Springs at the free throw line, going 6-6 down the stretch to win the opening-round game 58-52.

The Falcons took a 13-8 lead with an 8-0 run in the first quarter and led by at least four points until the final quarter.

Sweet Springs took a 39-38 lead in the fourth quarter with a 10-0 run, but the Falcons managed to stop the Greyhounds’ momentum.

Cale Polson hit a 3-pointer to put Fayette ahead 46-45.

“We just needed intensity, on defense especially,” Polson said about ending the run. “We just needed to make shots and keep up the offense.”

Polson finished with 12 points and five assists.

Earlier in the game, Tyler Bartholomew passed up an open 3-pointer, exasperating coach Jon Bishop and earning himself a rest on the bench.

“He’s passing up open looks like that, and we need to be taking that shot,” Bishop said. “We’re at ten games now and I’ve been telling him telling him all season, I told him all summer.”

Trailing 48-46, Bartholomew found himself open at the 3-point line again and this time he had the confidence to pull the trigger. The Falcons never trailed again.

“We need more of that, and I love when he knocks them down,” Bishop said.

Grant Himmelmann

Chase Allen came up with a big steal, followed by an offensive rebound and 3-point make from Kyle Schleeter. The Greyhounds cut the lead to one at 52-51, but Grant Himmelmann, Polson and Allen each went 2-2 at the line to close it out.

“Coach told us to just keep playing team basketball and keep doing what we were doing on offense,” said Himmelmann, who finished with six points and five rebounds. “We knew we could drive it in and make shots and we knew that we were the better team and we could finish this game.”

The Falcons scored 20 points over the final eight minutes after scoring just 10 in each of the two previous quarters.

Schleeter led Fayette with 17 points and four steals. Allen had six points and three steals. Josh Henderson had six points and nine rebounds before fouling out.