Blair Oaks Eric Northweather (white Jersey) and Tyson Riley of Springfield Catholic battle for the opening tip to start Saturday's Class 3 quarterfinal game in Bolivar.

@WeAreBlairOaks photo

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March 2, 2019

BOLIVAR, Mo. --- Don't let 90 minutes of disappointment spoil more than 90 days of good times and great memories.

When you don't lose a game for more than two months, after all, your season would qualify as a success.

Sure, this was a losing day --- Springfield Catholic 54, Blair Oaks 41 --- but it was still a winning season.

Big time.

"That's what I told the players after the game," Falcons coach Ryan Fick said. "They can't let this one game define their season, it was a good season.

"Going into it --- and with the schedule we'd put together --- if you'd told me we'd be 24-6 and make a quarterfinal appearance, everybody would have been pretty ecstatic about that."

But on this day, the best team won. The Irish used a 10-0 run in the third quarter to break open a tight game and cruise to the 13-point victory in the Class 3 quarterfinals Saturday at Southwest Baptist University.

Fundamentally speaking, the Irish are just nasty good. So much so, it left Fick stumbling for words.

"I don't know if I've seen a high school team run their offense like that group does. I just, I mean ... wow," he said. "Honestly, the way that group runs their offense --- and I think we held them to 17 points below their average --- we did enough, defensively.

"I think where we short-changed them a little bit was how good they are defensively. They guarded us really well and we had a hard time getting anything going on the offensive end.

"We just never could get into a rhythm or a flow."

The second-ranked Irish (28-3) scored the game's first four points, which wasn't good for the sixth-ranked Falcons (24-6). But this was much worse --- 6-8 junior Eric Northweather, Blair Oaks' leading scorer and rebounder, picked up two fouls in the opening 90 seconds and headed to the bench.

"That was probably the worst-case scenario for us," Fick said. "I think that limited his aggressiveness the rest of the day."

Northweather finished with only three points, 15 below his average.

"Eric had a hard time catching the ball on the block and was on the perimeter a lot," Fick said. "He really didn't get the ball in great positions to score."

But 6-6 senior Dru Rackers picked up the slack and dropped in 20 points, seven above his average.

"Dru Rackers really did a great job," Fick said, "and he had a great game on the offensive glass."

The Irish led 17-11 after one quarter and 25-16 midway through the second, but went scoreless the final four minutes as the Falcons crept within 25-22 at the break.

"We were pretty happy only being down three at the half after not playing real well, especially on the offensive end," Fick said.

After scoring 12 points in the opening half, Rackers scored the first four points of the third quarter to give the Falcons their first --- and only --- lead at 26-25.

"You felt good about it," Fick said, "but they (the Irish) have six seniors and you could tell they weren't rattled, at all. They were cool and calm, their demeanor never changed."

Here's hoping the Falcons enjoyed that lead, because it lasted less than 10 seconds.

After a timeout, the Irish found Jake Branham wide open in the corner and his 3-pointer gave the Irish the lead for good at 28-26. That also kick-started a 10-0 run as Catholic opened up a 35-26 lead, before taking a 40-31 edge into the fourth.

"After that," Fick said, "they just salted the game away running their motion offense --- they can basically run as much time off the clock as they want. And the way they shoot free throws, a 10-point lead was pretty insurmountable.

"Obviously, the Branham kid (6-2, senior, scored 14 points) is their guy, but they've got so many other weapons and they're such an unselfish team. They have a lot of guys who defer to other guys for better shots.

"They're a team, it seems, that passes up five or six good shots on every possession to break your will, and eventually get a better shot."

The Falcons would get no closer than eight in the fourth quarter, a frustrating finish to a fabulous campaign. They won the St. James Tournament, the Tri-County Conference regular-season title, the district championship, and they amassed an 18-game winning streak --- their last loss had been Dec. 29.

And oh, they advanced to the Elite Eight --- only four Class 3 teams in the state did better.

"This one stings a little bit," Fick said, "but after some time --- however long that might be --- I think these guys will be proud of what they accomplished. Because they did accomplish a lot, you couldn't ask for much more."

No doubt.

Speaking for all those wearing Green, thanks for the memories.

Frustrating finish to a fabulous
season: Falcons ousted by Irish

Streaking Falcons fly
into Elite 8 to face
second-ranked Irish

Chris Leuckel