By: Joe Blystone
THE VILLAGE REPORTER
publisher@thevillagereporter.com
FAYETTE (January 16, 2025) – Time and time again Pettisville had Fayette on the edge of the precipice, ready to push them over the edge.
Every time the Eagles fought to stay alive, then in the last two minutes of the game, Fayette ran off 11 straight points to come from behind one last time to score a 49-42 win over the Blackbirds.
“They gained a couple leads on us, and maybe earlier in the year we might have started feeling sorry for ourselves. But we were resilient, we came back swinging,” Fayette coach Travis Arkwright said. “We threw a couple punches back and made it a basketball game.”
“We got the ball in the middle of the floor later and made shots and we stepped up at the end making free throws.”
The Blackbirds used eight consecutive Olivia Miller points to take a 13-10 late first quarter lead before Addison Schang hoisted a high-arching triple that banged off glass and in with 29 seconds left to knot the game at 13s after eight minutes.
The Blackbirds forced four straight Eagle turnovers to start the second. Noelle Fox made good on two of those mistakes with a bucket in close and 2-2 from the foul line to give the Blackbirds a 17-13 lead.
Madison Remington tacked on a three-point play after another Fayette turnover to extend the gap to 20-13 with 5:16 left.
Then Pettisville began to misfire. While the Blackbirds were going 1/14 the rest of the quarter, Fayette battled back.
Zoie Brown’s putback began a seven point flurry that included a Schang triple and Kennedy Kunkle’s power move with 40 seconds left in the half, that knotted the score at 20-20.
Miller’s one-on-one move eight seconds later regained a two-point Pettisville advantage at the break, but Fayette came back starting the third.
Schang’s steal-and-score then Willow Mitchell’s jumper got the Eagles back up 24-22 in the first two minutes.
Brown again scored off the offensive glass to give Fayette a 27-24 lead, but Miller rattled off seven straight on her own, including a deep triple off a turnover, to boost the Blackbirds up 31-29.
Kelsie Storrs back-to-back hoops regained a two-point Fayette lead, which Miller eliminated when she forced a jumper from the key that hit all net at the third quarter horn to tie the game again.
Fox’s field goal with 2:16 to go in a slow paced fourth gave Pettisville a 39-36 margin.
It was then the Eagles not only re-claimed the lead but extended it the rest of the way.
Kunkle got ahead of the press for a layup to get Fayette within a point, then 20 seconds later scored off a dish from Schang off a Blackbird turnover to put Fayette up for keeps.
Mitchell found Brown for a score on an out-of-bounds play with 50 seconds left to make it 42-39.
Then after Brown made the first of two at the line with 38.7 to go, Schang rebounded the miss on the second and scored a stick back for a game clincher.
Brown and Storrs each canned 2/2 from the line to close it.
“We work on shooting free throws under pressure at practice,” Arkwright explained. “We have kids standing under the basket, jumping up and down mocking them a little like what would happen in a game.”
“They have to focus a little more. That’s big for Zoie right there, at the end being a big confidence builder. Kelsie stepped up and made a pair as well.”
Miller led all scorers with 23 while Fox added 10 points. Schang paced Fayette (7-8, 2-2 BBC) with 16 and Brown tacked on 13.
Pettisville (5-10, 2-1 BBC) shot 33 percent from the floor and had 21 turnovers. Fayette shot 42 percent but was guilty of 26 turnovers.
PETTISVILLE (42) – Rice 0; Strauss 1; Hastings 0; Bennett 5; G. Remington 0; Fox 10; M. Remington 3; Miller 23; Beltz 0; Totals: 13-2-10 – 42
FAYETTE (49) – Schang 16; Mitchell 3; Storrs 9; Gorsuch 0; Fetterman 0; Brown 13; Kunkle 8; Totals: 18-2-7 – 49
PHS 13 9 11 9 – 42
FHS 13 7 13 16 – 49
Junior Varsity: Pettisville, 18-8 (2 quarters)