Hounds falter in final minutes of SEC loss

FAIRFIELD – A little bit of self-destruction derailed the Fort Madison boys season-opener at Fairfield.
The Hounds held the lead for all but about 90 seconds of the first three and half quarters of Friday’s 57-55 loss to the Trojans. But the final five minutes of the fourth quarter proved to be an undoing.
The Bloodhounds held a 45-40 lead with 4:48 left in the game, but gave up back-to-back 3-balls to Fairfield’s Riley Perkins and Andrew Myers to give Fairfield just it’s third lead of the game at 46-45. Jackson Guzman would counter for Fort Madison with a short lane jumper, but Perkins, who proved to be an enigma for the Hounds most of the night, would hit again from the right wing for a 49-47 Fairfield lead.
The two teams would work to a 51-51 tie with 1:10 left in the game when Nolan Guzman hit a three from the left wing. Then Jackson Guzman would disrupt the inbound pass and get fouled. However, Guzman turned and clapped loudly at the call and was hit with a technical foul for taunting. Guzman would miss both of his free throws from the foul, but Perkins would shoot the freebies for the Trojans and drained both for a 53-51 lead. The Trojans also maintained possession following the technical forcing Fort Madison into a fouling situation with :33 left.
Fairfield was able to keep getting the ball to Perkins who was fouled again after Fort Madison burned through the two they had to give before the bonus kicked in. Perkins converted a couple more free throws for a 55-51 lead.
The Hounds’ Kenden Bowie would then draw a foul in a scrum, but converted just one of the two freebies for a 55-52 game with :11 left. Fairfield junior Eli Zillman would get behind the Hounds on the inbound and slam home a dunk with three seconds left for a 57-52 score.
Senior Julian Dear would hit a three from the top of the key at the buzzer for the final score.
Head Coach Ryan Wilson said the end game strategy was to keep the ball away from Perkins, but execution of that directive failed.
“We wanted to take him away and make somebody else beat us but we gave up a bucket in transition,” he said.

“We’ve just got to execute. How many times did (Perkins) being the inbound passer come off a screen and catch and shoot? Late they have the ball on the sideline, we put Bowie on the ball and told them to take 10 away and we didn’t execute.  We just have to execute. It comes down to that stuff.
“We have four juniors and a senior and we have to execute. We just talked about it in the locker room. We played in these fall leagues at SCC and all three games we lost by 2 or 3 points. Go back to the Williamsburg league and every game we lost by 1 or 2 points. It just goes back to execution.
If I have senior and juniors that can’t execute, freshman and sophomores get ready. At least we have an excuse for inexperience.
The Hounds also struggled throughout the game to get the ball to post Dayton Lamar with a hand up.
“We’re not looking for him. The time or two he caught it he scored. He’s gotta get the ball more and we have to utilize him because I’ll tell you right now - we’re gonna see a heck of a lot more zone defense because of our size and athleticism,” Wilson said.
Lamar had six points early in the first quarter and finished with 12, just four points in the second half.
Wilson said he didn’t think Guzman’s clapping warranted a technical, and the game was a little chippy. But said he did a great job of getting the foul called and getting to the line for a chance at the lead.
“Did that beat us? Some people will say that, but we had a lot of turnovers in the first half.”
Nolan Guzman also scored in double figures with 10 in a game that featured four dunks, one each from Dear and Bowie and a couple from Zillman. Perkins led all scorers with 25.
The Hounds are off until next Friday when they host Mt. Pleasant (0-2) and then travel to Pella (0-1) on the following Saturday.