Falcons fly to end of season

By JUSTIN HARMON/Staff

It was shaping up to be one of those Friday night games that people talk about for years to come.
The Abingdon High School boys’ basketball team had pushed Bassett around the court and it looked as if they were going to go further in the playoffs than any Abingdon team in years. It looked like the boys were going to state.
Then Bassett opened up.
“I can’t speak for the guards,” said junior Alex Looney (16 points). “But (Bassett) pressed us and we didn’t handle it very well.”
Until late in the third quarter, Abingdon held a 41-33 advantage.
“After the half, we made some adjustments, got some easy buckets and were able to get into the game. Then Bassett forced us into a couple mistakes,” said Coach B.J. Lasley.
He said a number of things killed their shot at state.
The first and hardest to overcome was Bassett’s speed. Lasley said Bassett simply outpaced them and it was difficult to simulate that speed in practice. Looney agreed, saying if they would have gotten the chance to play a few more games before facing Bassett, things may have gone differently.
The next problem to rear up was the fouls. Jacob Hess and Nathan Hess both racked up their third fouls of the game, putting them dangerously close to getting benched. That’s when Bassett went on the attack.
By the end of the fourth quarter, Bassett had turned the game around and finished out with a 61-53 win over Abingdon.
“It was real quiet,” said Looney of the atmosphere in the locker room after the game. “We were all just disappointed.”
Even so, Abingdon put up a fight before going down.
“We played well and had a good effort,” said Looney.
Looney said looking back, he would have demanded the ball a bit more given a second chance and used his height advantage (six-foot-five) more fully. Looney also said they probably could have pressed the court a bit more.
Looney also said he wasn’t in the best shape he could have been going into the game. Halfway through the season, Looney said the sustained a knee injury and was out for a bit. This killed his physicality, he said.
It’s natural to wonder what could have been after a defeat, but Lasley isn’t encouraging it.
“You can look back, but the fact is every year every team but one is going to end on a loss,” said Lasley. “We try not to go back. I tell the kids to leave it all on the floor and whatever happens, happens.”
Though the game may have cost Abingdon their run at state, Looney said they’re not giving up by any means.
Next year, Looney said he’ll be going back out for the team, along with the team’s top scorer, Jacob Hess and many others on the team. Though the team will be losing four seniors to graduation, Looney said they’ve got the makings of a good team with replacements coming up from junior varsity.
“There’s a lot of promise in the kids coming up,” he said. “Zach Viars is one, and Jacob’s brother Josh – he’d be our first true point.”
Looney said he’ll be working on his own physical fitness, training to up his speed and endurance so that state isn’t just what could have been.
“Next year will really be our year,” he said.
Justin Harmon can be reached at 628-7101 or jharmon@wythenews.com.