Freddies stave off tourney challenge from Spartans

The Fredericktown boys basketball team knew that things would get tougher as tournament season began. They didn’t expect it to be this hard.

The Freddies, who went through the regular season undefeated, needed a strong fourth quarter to hold off Pleasant and escape with a 68-60 victory Saturday in the Div. V sectional tournament opener for both teams.

“That’s what tournament basketball is supposed to be like. It’s not always pretty, it’s not always the way you scripted it, but at the end of the day, the only thing that matters is win and move on,” Fredericktown coach Derek Dibling said. “Both teams are playing for their lives at this point, so I think you respect that. Everybody is 0-0 and what you’ve done doesn’t matter. You’ve got to do the little things.”

For most of the first three quarters, it was the Spartans doing the little things right. Led by Colin Jordan and Colin Mattix, the Spartans (14-9) were able to control the pace and the game. Those two combined for 26 points, even though Fredericktown (23-0) led by two (45-43).

The Freddies were finally able to settle things down, both offensively and defensively, in the fourth quarter to take command and win the game.

“I don’t know if rattled is the right word, but we kind of got away from ourselves at times. In key situations, pressure does weird things to the body. Our guys handled it and stepped up when they needed to. I’m happy for these guys,” Dibling said. “I think we just tightened things up. We seemed too loose, too much space, letting guys get to their spots. We pride ourselves in not allowing guys, individuals, teams to get comfortable. I think for three quarters, they were just too comfortable.”

Senior Blake Sipes and junior Carson Rinehart helped turn the tide in the Freddies’ favor in the fourth quarter. They each scored eight points in the final frame to help secure the victory. Sipes’ speed helped the Freddies get a couple of easy buckets, including one where he grabbed a rebound off a missed free throw and took it the entire length of the court for a layup.

“There’s nobody quicker end line to end line (than Sipes). That’s his specialty, his superpower, and he’s really tough to guard in the open court,” Dibling said.

Rinehart finished the night with 25 points to lead the Freddies. Zane Luckmeier added 17 and Sipes 12, while Gavin Toombs had nine.

Jordan and Evan Sickmiller led the Spartans with 17 points each. Mattix finished with 14.

It won’t get any easier for the Freddies as they must host Fairbanks (21-2) on Wednesday at 7 p.m.

“It’s only going to get tougher. In a sense, it (this win) battle tests you a little bit. There’s nothing easy, but you find other ways to win. You go through different obstacles, different hurdles. It prepares you for what’s down the road,” Dibling said.