When the Carrollton defense closed in on Josh Henderson with a minute left in Friday’s game, the Falcon junior immediately fired the ball out to Cale Polson at the top of the key.

Polson was well behind the 3-point line, but he didn’t hesitate to pull the trigger. His aim was true, doubling Fayette’s lead late in a 64-56 win in the fifth-place game of the Wildcat Classic.

“Coach has the confidence in me to shoot that, and of course I want to take it, too,” Polson said.

“We just had a lot of fight. There was adversity and we just had to battle through the last few minutes.”

Polson had 17 points. Kyle Schleeter scored the Falcons’ first seven points of the game and seven of the first eight during the fourth quarter. He finished with 23 points and 13 rebounds.

It seemed like every time Fayette started to pull away in the fourth quarter, Carrollton had an answer. The Falcons went up by six and the Trojans answered with seven straight. Fayette battled to retake the lead at 48-43 and Carrollton made back-to-back 3-pointers.

Polson’s 3-pointer was the only field goal for Fayette during the final 2:28, but the Falcons went 11-12 at the free-throw line over that stretch.

“Obviously the foul line played a pivotal role,” Fayette coach Jon Bishop said.

“I’m just proud of these guys, they fought hard. I told them that we needed to figure out a way to keep competing and try to finish strong and win out for the week. They did that tonight and they did that last night.”

Cody Hilgedick gave Fayette its largest lead of the game in the second quarter with a 3-pointer that made it 23-13, but the Trojans closed the quarter on an 8-0 run. Zach Henderson had eight points in the third quarter as the lead changed hands four times.

“Zach has had a monster week, he really has, he’s just played really solid,” Bishop said. “Obviously, you can see him attacking the rim and he’s rebounding really well too.”

Henderson finished with 10 points, nine rebounds, and two assists.

Fayette 61, Sweet Springs 52

After plodding through the first quarter, Fayette picked up the pace and ran away with a 61-52 win over Sweet Springs on Thursday.

A banked 3-pointer from the Greyhounds accounted for the only points for either team through the first three and a half minutes of play and the Falcons trailed 12-8 early in the second.

Zach Henderson

An 8-0 run gave Fayette its first lead of the game, and a 10-0 run extended the lead to 26-17 just before halftime. Zach Henderson, who had 13 points and a game-high nine rebounds, scored eight points during the second quarter.

“I felt like we needed to speed up the game because honestly, we were showing no energy,” Henderson said.

“Pretty much all it is, is talking and playing more intense defense, which turns into more intense offense and I think that’s how we really pulled away.”

Fayette scored the first 11 points of the third quarter and took a 37-21 lead on Kyle Schleeter’s 3-pointer. Fayette would extend the lead to 45-23 before Sweet Springs made a run.

“I thought the third quarter was obviously the difference,” Fayette coach Jon Bishop said. “We came out in a 2-3 (zone) and we haven’t been doing that a ton this year. I think that changed them up a bit, maybe they weren’t prepared for it.”

Schleeter finished the game with 20 points on just nine shots with six steals. Cale Polson added a dozen points. Chase Allen was 5-6 at the free-throw line to finish with five and Grant Himmelmann was 3-4 at the stripe.

Tyler Bartholomew scored five points as well.

“I thought our guys did really well, they extended (the defense) a little bit,” Bishop said. “I’m just glad we were able to open it up a little bit with some shots and I’m glad we attacked the basket.”

Pilot Grove 66, Fayette 62

Fayette was unable to recover from a second quarter letdown in a 66-62 loss to Pilot Grove on Tuesday in the first round of the Wildcat Classic.

The Falcons fought back from a 36-23 halftime deficit in the third quarter and pulled within four points when Zach Henderson beat the third quarter buzzer with just his second 3-pointer of the season.

Fayette trailed 59-51 in the fourth before Kyle Schleeter made his third 3-point shot of the night. Schleeter led Fayette with 19 points and six rebounds on 7-8 shooting despite having his minutes limited with foul trouble.

Schleeter and Josh Henderson fouled out with about three minutes left in the game.

Zach Henderson stole the ball and calmly laid it in to cut the deficit to one point in the final minute, but the Tigers answered at the other end. Chase Allen drove and scored to pull the Falcons within one again, but Fayette’s final shot just missed and Pilot Grove iced the game at the line.

Cody Hilgedick

Tyler Bartholomew and Cody Hilgedick each had career-highs with 11 and nine points, respectively. Hilgedick is 5-10 from the 3-point line over his last three games.

“It was awesome, I like seeing guys do that,” Fayette coach Jon Bishop said. “I really think they both have the ability to score and help us. I hope it continues. Tyler has worked a lot over the last two-week span. He’s stayed after practice and did some extra shooting. I’m really proud of that and that’s really the thing we’ve been missing, that extra third or fourth guy to come in and maybe average 10 points per game. It’s a work in progress and you just keep pushing them towards that.”

Zach Henderson finished with 11 points and Cale Polson added eight.

Schleeter scored eight points in the first quarter as Fayette took a 10-5 lead, but Pilot Grove went on an 9-0 run and outscored the Falcons 31-13 over the rest of the half.