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Avon Eagles head coach Mike Fitch knew his team needed a win tonight to get back on track after his team went through a tough stretch of games recently. After a great start to the season the Eagles have had some tough losses against some really good conference opponents lately. It was the same story for Midview and head coach Jim Brabenec, as they went into this game looking to pick up some momentum with the playoffs coming up soon.
The Eagles jumped out early, getting out to a 15-3 lead to start the game. Zane Austin knocked down multiple threes for the Eagles during that run. For the Middies, senior guard Ryan Runser then hit back to back jumpers putting the Middies down 7. The Eagles held a 15-8 lead after the first quarter. The second quarter was all about the three pointer. After a Herman Plas three made it a 17-11 ball game the Eagles hit 3 three pointers in a row to extend their lead to 15. The Eagles knocked down 7 threes in the first half and took over half their shots from long range. For the Middies, 14 of their 20 first half shot attempts were threes, making 4 of them. At the half the Eagles led 33-16.
The Eagles offense changed a little bit in the second half. They relied a bit more on inside scoring, only shooting 4 threes after the break. Sophomore big man Sam Toniolo gave the Eagles great contribution off the bench with 11 points, with all of them coming in the paint. Ryan Runser and David Moore tried to get the Middies back into it with back to back threes, but the Eagles closed the quarter on another run. At the end of the 3rd quarter Zane Austin hit a buzzer beating three pointer to put the Eagles up 47-31.
In the 4th the Middies came out on a 7-2 run, but it wasn’t enough and the Eagles would maintain their lead for the rest of the game. It was a 14 point lead for the Eagles until the final minute when Ryan Runser converted a 4 point play for the Middies. In the end Eagles would win by a score of 62-52. For the Eagles it was a balanced scoring effort. Zane Austin led the way with 16 points, Nolan Good had 12, and Sam Toniolo joined them in double figures with 11. For the Middies Ryan Runser finished with 19 points.
The Eagles needed this one to get back on the right track heading into the playoffs. Coach Fitch said after the game “This is what we focused on, we want to trend up, we were set up schedule wise where we could trend down and get down on ourselves. They bought in tonight and believed in themselves. That’s huge”.
