By Nolan Epstein
Another game, another strong performance from tournament darling Fair Play. Unfortunately for the Hornets, Wednesday night’s effort came up just a bit short this time around as unbeaten Hermitage ended their feel-good run in the semifinal round.
After holding a 42-33 lead at the half, Hermitage (10-0) let its advantage completely evaporate as No. 7 seed Fair Play (6-3) even held a 3-point edge early in the fourth period, but head coach Joe Nicholson’s team dug deep in the final minutes and found a way to survive by a 68-63 final.
“We got lucky, we got lucky,” Nicholson said after the semifinal nail-biter. “[Fair Play] is a really good team. When I watched them play Fordland the other night, I knew we were going to have our hands full tonight because they looked incredible. I thought they played every bit as good as we did.”
Through nine games, 3-seed Hermitage had yet to see a serious challenge posed by an opponent outside of Wheatland this year as the Hornets have won their games by an average margin of well over 30 points, but that all changed on Wednesday as Fair Play never lost confidence despite being down by as many as nine points in the second half.
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“Those guys are undefeated and this is as close of a game that they’ve had so far,” Fair Play head coach Lynn Long said of Hermitage. “I feel OK about that. We’re going to keep getting better.”
Senior Camden Welch bagged a game-high 25 points for upset-minded Fair Play. 10 of those points came in a third quarter in which his team outscored Hermitage by an 18-10 margin.
Luckily for Nicholson and Hermitage, Welch’s performance was all but equalized by senior Victor Le Verdier. Le Verdier led his team with 21 big points, while fellow senior Dillon Meyer put through 17 points and back-to-back 3-pointers late in the contest to keep Fair Play at bay.
“Victor did a really good job taking the ball to the rim tonight, which led to a lot of points,” Nicholson said. “We have a lot of weapons, so it’s kind of hard to guard us. Every night, it seems to be somebody different.”
The win pits a pair of undefeated teams against each other in the tournament championship, and Nicholson knows his club is in for its toughest challenge yet.
“[Walnut Grove] is the best Class 1 team in Missouri, there’s just no doubt about it,” added Nicholson. “We have our work cut out for us, but if we stick to what we do and we don’t let them get in our heads, I think we can give it a shot.”
Box Score
Fair Play – 19 14 18 12 – 63
Hermitage – 15 27 10 16 – 68
Fair Play – Camden Welch 25, Kohner Thomas 14, Devon Rovenstine 13, Ryan Rutledge 9, Justin Viles 2
Hermitage – Victor Le Verdier 21, Dillon Meyer 17, Darek Reeves 14, Jeff Salmon 10, Austin Hostettler 6
