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By Shelley Ebbrecht
Fair Grove, MO – It was a clash of unbeaten Mid-Lakes opponents in Fair Grove Friday night. With title implications on the line and a courtwarming crowd to please, Fair Grove thrived under the pressure and put away the Marionville Comets, 73-48.
“We did a good job tonight coming out and taking care of our home court,” said Fair Grove coach Tim Brown. “Playing a team like Marionville, who is playing fantastic with Coach Young as one of the best in the state of Missouri, we knew they were going to be prepared to play. We knew we were going to have to stay down in the stance defensively and defend for long possessions and I thought we did a good job of that.”
Fair Grove was feeding off the energy of the home crowd and Steven Huskey gave them the show they came looking for with a huge dunk midway through the first period. Marionville’s Cole Brown answered with a trey to keep things tied up.
Fair Grove pulled ahead to their first double-digit lead, 31-20, with a Garrett Kesterson layup just inside two minutes to play in the first half. Then Kesterson stole the ball on a Marionville inbound and took it to the other end of the court for a wide open dunk to give the Eagles a 37-23 advantage headed in to the locker room.
“The score doesn’t matter,” Kesterson said. “We are trying to do a better job of staying disciplined, no matter the score. When we get to the post season, we are going to have to play our best the whole game.”
Marionville kept fighting back but was unable to gain the momentum needed to slow down the home team. Fair Grove, now 20-4, put the 73-48 win in the books to remain undefeated in the MLC with just one conference showdown remaining—the regular season finale against rival Strafford at home next Friday.
Huskey and Kesterson combined for over two-thirds of the Eagles offense. Huskey ended the game with 26 to Kesterson’s 25 total points. Kesterson, known for his work beyond the arc, sank only 2 three-point shots on the night, instead scoring most of his points in the paint.
“Garrett is a really good player and he can do more than score the three,” Brown said. “We have other weapons on our team and Garrett does a good job of playing Fair Grove basketball –of getting his own and also making others better.”
Marionville’s Cole Brown was the lead scorer for the Comets, putting up 21 points on the night. With the loss, the Comets fell to 20-3 on the season and will face conference matchups with Strafford and Ash Grove next week.
“Our kids played hard, I just think Fair Grove is really good and we had quite a mismatch on height,” said Marionville head coach Ted Young. “Hopefully we can build on this loss, get a little better and don’t let this loss affect us any headed into Districts.”
Box Score:
Fair Grove 73, Marionville 48
Fair Grove 17-20-16-20—73 Marionville 13-10-9-16—48
Fair Grove—Steven Huskey 26, Garrett Kesterson 25, Cole Gilpin 6, Evan Fullerton 5, David Oplotnik 5, Dalton Cloyd 4, Garrett Potter 2
Marionville—Cole Brown 21, Josh Goodman 13, Levi Doyle 7, Aaron Head 4, Nick Dean 2, Ryan Mayberry 1
