By Gary Kauffman
Westview survived a shooting nightmare in the second half, holding on to a 36-33 win at Fairfield Friday night in NECC tourney semifinals.
Westview went 1-for-14 from the field in the second half, including missing their first 12 shots of the half.
"When you get the shots you have to make them," Warrior coach Rob Yoder said. "You don't have to make all of them but you've got to make some."
Compounding problems for Westview was a thin bench. Starting center Kurt Lambright was lost in the first half to a probable concussion, and midway through the fourth quarter forward Dominique Neely went to the bench for nearly four minutes nursing a leg cramp.
Fairfield, meanwhile, looked like it might reprise its comeback win of Wednesday night.
On Wednesday the Falcons trailed Churubusco 29-12 and came back to win. On Friday night, they trailed Westview 26-12 late in the first half and eventually came back to take a 33-32 lead.
The north end of the gym proved especially chintzy Friday night. The Falcons made just 4-of-24 at that end in the first half before the Warriors went 1-for-14.
Trailing 26-15 at halftime, the Falcons battled back to forge a 27-27 tie.
The Warriors' lone point was a free throw by Seth Wagler at the 5:18 mark.
Wagler then made another free throw to open the fourth quarter and Neely added a pair of charity tosses.
After Tanner Foust scored to cut the lead to 30-29, Wagler made Westview's lone field goal of the half with 3:06 to go.
But Foust made a pair of free throws and at 2:15 Miles Kritzman put the Falcons ahead for the first time in the game on a feed from Chandler Kauffman.
At 1:34 Wagler's two free throws put Westview back on top. Brant Yoder then made one more with 17 seconds left for a 34-32 edge.
The Falcons had the ball out of bounds under their own basket with 9 seconds remaining and got a quick pass in to Kauffman under the basket. But his shot skimmed off the rim.
Wagler rebounded and was fouled. He made one free throw with 5 seconds left, but missed the second. Fairfield came down with a chance to tie but an errant pass cinched the game for Westview.
"If we can come out of that with a win, when we shot 1-for-14 in the second half and with the bench as thin as it was, we'll take it and move on," Yoder said.
"I was really proud of how hard our kids played. It was a lot more about guts and toughness than X's and O's."
Neely led all scorers with 17 points, including 15 in the first half. Wagler added 12, going 10-for-16 from the free throw line. He also pulled down nine rebounds.
