Falcons split games at Marvin Ridge tourney

The Nation Ford Falcons boys’ basketball team split games at a competitive Thanksgiving Border Battle at Marvin Ridge High School.

The Falcons opened the two-day event beating Cuthbertson 34-30, but fell 63-54 to host Marvin Ridge. Head coach Jared Adamson said it is just a matter of putting all the pieces together for his team.

“We are going through some growing pains,” he said. “It’s a great learning experience. We have to learn from our mistakes.”

In the opener, Nation Ford got 11 points from sophomores Zeb Graham and 10 points from Malik Bryant in the 34-30 win over Cuthbertson. The game was close in the opening quarter with Nation Ford holding a slight 8-5 lead, but was shutout 8-0 in the second quarter.

In the second half, Graham got all hot scoring all 11 of his points with eight of them coming in the third quarter off two 3-pointers. The Falcons outscored Cuthbertson 16-10 in the quarter and took the lead at the end of the quarter on a 3-pointer by junior Eric Moulds.

Against Marvin Ridge, Nation Ford struggled to stay with a high-energy Mavericks team. Nation Ford opened the game on an 8-0 run, but Marvin Ridge came right back and put together an 8-0 run of its own.

Graham again paced Nation Ford with 21 points, but couldn’t lift his team to a victory this time around. Nation Ford was able to keep the came close and cut the Mavericks’ lead under 10 on several occasions in the second half, but wasn’t able to get momentum fully in their corner. Marvin Ridge took advantage of their fast breaks points to pull away and score in transition throughout the third quarter.

Marvin Ridge was also aided by seven 3-pointers in the game and hit 15 of 21 foul shots in the second half to hold off Nation Ford. The Falcons had struggles of their own getting the ball inside and getting any points from inside the paint. Nation Ford shot just 50 percent in the fourth quarter and only went to the foul line just once in the fourth quarter.

Up next for Nation Ford is a home game this week against Lancaster. They will play at home again Dec. 6 against Indian Land and then against Marvin Ridge again Dec. 9, also at home.

This story was originally published November 25, 2016 at 8:25 PM with the headline "Falcons split games at Marvin Ridge tourney."