FREDERICKTOWN — It was a season to remember in Fredericktown.
The Freddies’ undefeated run came to an end Wednesday night in the district semifinals after a gut-wrenching 61-60 loss to Fairbanks.
“We knew it was going to take four quarters to beat such a good team as Fredericktown,” Panthers’ coach Zach Brown said.
The outcome was uncertain until the final buzzer.
With four seconds left and Fairbanks leading 61-58, the Freddies missed a jumper which was rebounded by Panthers’ freshman Nate Mihis. However, Meihis immediately traveled, giving the home team one last shot.
Fredericktown’s Gavin Toombs took an inbounds pass and launched a 3-point attempt from just behind the arc on the right side. The shot drifted left, and an offensive rebound and put-back was good, but that left the Freddies’ a point short.
In the hallway outside the Fredericktown locker room, after taking time to fist-bump and high-five some admiring young fans, Toombs’ face flushed with emotion.
“It’s hard, you know, you spend all the time with the guys,” said Toombs, who will play football at Walsh next fall. “The past three years have been a blessing being with this coaching staff and these guys, playing alongside them.
“This is definitely not the greatest feeling to have, but I’m glad about our effort tonight, and the way we played our tails off. I wouldn’t have wanted to do it with another group of guys.”
Two factors combined to create the perfect storm, which doomed the Freddies.
The charity stripe was not very charitable as Fredericktown connected on only 7-of-18 free throws.
“We didn’t knock them down when we needed to and again when you play a good team like this, little things matter, they are a great team,” Freddies’ coach Derek Dibling said.
The second issue came when, with Fredericktown leading 44-39 and just under two minutes showing in the third quarter, the Panthers went on a 14-0 run, which continued into the final eight minutes.
The spree didn’t end until just 6:27 remained in the game, when Carson Rinehart dropped in a layup to pull his team to within 53-48.
“With a team as good as Frederickton and such a good environment, I was just really proud of our guys that we held together down the stretch and made enough winning plays to win the game,” Brown said.
“We prepared really hard, those five guys who start for them are excellent players. We wanted to make it the hardest on them to take good shots and hopefully take some of their strengths away. That’s one heck of a team, very physical, it was a very physical game.”
Dibling said this will always be a season to remember. Fredericktown finished a memorable campaign with a 23-1 record.
“I told those guys that I’m thankful for the memories and thankful for being a part of a good system,” Dibling said. “They don’t realize it now but they will look back and understand how special this season was.”
Fairbanks was led in scoring by junior forward Eric Wiedmann with 19, followed by Alec Orders with 12.
Carson Rinehart topped Fredericktown with 18 points, Blake Sipes added 17 and Zane Lockmeier rounded out those in double figures with 13.
The Panthers improved to 22-2. Sixth-seeded Fairbanks advances to Saturday’s 7:15 p.m. district title game against second-seeded Africentric (18-4) at Mount Vernon Nazarene.
The Nubians hammered Northridge 75-34 in their district semifinal.
(Photos by Dan Werner)
