Boys basketball: Fulton rallies late but comes up short against Scales Mound in 2A sectional championship

LANARK – The Fulton Steamers fell behind by 15 points early in the third quarter of Friday night’s Class 1A Eastland Sectional championship game against the Scales Mound Hornets. Although they surged in the fourth quarter and drew within two points in the last 30 seconds, they couldn’t finish the comeback, losing 50-46.

Down 42-32 to start the fourth quarter, Fulton senior Ethan Price created a four-point swing in the first 35 seconds. First, he caught a tipped ball in the lane and laid it in, then he got a steal near midcourt and Euro-stepped past a defender to cut it to 42-36.

[ Photos from Fulton vs. Scales Mound boys basketball sectional final ]

The Steamers continued to chip away until, with 42 seconds left, Reed Owen pump-faked, then buried a top-of-the-key 3 to get within 46-43. After Scales’ Thomas Hereau made two free throws, Trevor Tiesman pulled up and hit a left-wing 3 with 25 seconds remaining, drawing the Steamers within 48-46.

Six seconds later, Jacob Duerr hit two more free throws, stretching the Scales lead to 50-46. Fulton got one final shot off in the last 10 seconds, but it rimmed out and Scales Mound secured the rebound.

“There was a lot of effort. It just shows how hard we fight and never give up,” Price said about Fulton’s rally. “We lost, but we never quit fighting throughout that game. We were down 15, we got it to a two-point ballgame. We just never stopped fighting.”

“I’d say that we never stop, we never quit,” teammate Baylen Damhoff added. “We play with confidence and we know what we can do when we just play our game.”

After a back-and-forth first quarter, Scales got the edge at 14-13 on a Dylan Slavenburg layup with 35 seconds left.

The Hornets built a comfortable lead with a 16-7 second-quarter run. After a Price strip-steal near midcourt and fast-break layup put Fulton in front 15-14 in the first 11 seconds, Duerr hit back-to-back short-range jumpers for an 18-15 Scales lead.

“We knew we had to get a couple shots off. Going into third quarters for us have been slow, so we knew if wanted to pull this one off, we were going to have to get points going into halftime and have that lead,” Duerr said. “But for us going into halftime, coach [Erik] Kudronowicz telling us that we need to speed it up, that’s good for us. We came out here and sped it up, unlike usual. And I think that’s the reason why we pulled it off there.”

“I think we got the ball inside early on, which was really key for us,” Price said. “When they started pulling away, we stopped getting the ball inside, started taking a lot of 3s. We just weren’t hitting 3s like normal.”

A Payton Curley right-wing 3 cut the margin to 22-20 with a little over four minutes left, but Scales closed the first half on an 8-0 run. Duerr got to the hoop, then Charlie Wiegel finished a layup off an Evan Cogan steal and assist, then Wiegel hit a spinning pull-up jumper and Seth Birkett made a putback at the buzzer.

Scales took a 30-20 lead at the half, aided by a 12-2 turnover differential.

“We were just never able to settle in and execute what we wanted to do, and we turned the ball over too much,” Fulton coach RJ Coffey said. “I don’t know how many turnovers we had in the first half, but it was too many, and you can’t give a team like Scales Mound that many extra opportunities without them hurting you.”

“I believe we started to get into foul trouble and people started thinking more,” Damhoff said about the second quarter. “Instead of playing good defense, they were worrying about fouling, and the [Scales players] just got by them. We really pushed to not to get as many turnovers [in the second half], but with that differential, it’s really hard to stay in the game.”

Hereau hit a left-corner 3 to open the third quarter, then Duerr got to the basket and assisted on a Wiegel layup with an inbounds pass for a 37-22 lead with 5:34 left in the period. A Price jump hook followed by a Damhoff layup and mid-range jumper drew Fulton within 42-32 in the last three minutes of the quarter.

Damhoff led Fulton with 19 points, nine rebounds, two steals and three blocks, Price tallied 11 points, nine rebounds, two assists, two steals and three blocks, and Curley added six points, one assist and one steal.

“I think we did great. It was amazing to see the comeback we made throughout the season,” Price said. “I’m sure that fans in the beginning thought this was going to be a rough season for us – we started off with real tough games, lost a lot, and we got down, and then we started battling back in games. We started winning a lot, what, a 15-game win streak or whatever? And we won a regional, won a sectional game, so I think it was pretty successful.”

“I was really proud of how our guys fought and responded, not being in a good situation, but never gave up,” Coffey said. “One thing’s been consistent with this group all year, is they don’t stop fighting and there’s no quit in them.”

Duerr led Scales with 19 points, four rebounds, three assists and a block, while Hereau and Wiegel added 12 points each; Hereau had two steals and five rebounds, and Wiegel chipped in three rebounds, two assists and two steals.

“This postseason’s been tough for us,” Duerr said. “We’ve been in close games the whole time, going into double OT with South Beloit, so we knew it was going to be close. But for us to overcome that, and hit those big shots there at the end, it was good for us.”