By Nathan Mayberg
FALLSBURG — The Family School rallied from a 25-7 deficit in the second quarter Friday night to defeat Fallsburg, 54-51, in a nail-biter at Fallsburg Central School.
The score was tied at 51 with six seconds remaining in the non-league game when the referee made a questionable foul call.
As a result, The Family School’s Miles Farkas was sent to the free-throw line for three shots and he made all of them to seal the victory.
The Fallsburg Comets seemed to be in the command through most of the first half. They controlled the quick tempo and scored some easy transition layups.
But all of a sudden, the team seemed to slow down, and The Family School roared back.
Fallsburg Coach Paul Marsden attributed the change in pace to team foul trouble and lack of depth on the bench.
Family School Coach Patrick Simmons thought his team came out flat in the beginning of the game.
“We missed 12 layups in the first half,” he said. “Fallsburg wasn’t even going up for the block.”
After the Falcons settled down, however, they took over the game.
Towards the end of the second quarter, The Family School began to use a relentless backcourt press. Fallsburg had great difficulty getting the ball out of its own end of the court. The Family School caused well over a dozen turnovers through the press, resulting in easy baskets.
The Falcons finally tied the game at 47 with 2:35 left in the fourth quarter. They took a 49-48 lead on a layup by Lee Lilly. The lead was extended to three points when Alex Dron made a jump shot.
The game looked to be over until Sean Buckner hit a three-pointer from the side to tie the game at 51.
The teams seemed destined for overtime until the controversial foul call with six seconds left.
Miles Farkas led The Family School (7-4) with 21 points. Sean Buckner was the high scorer for Fallsburg (3-6) with 14 points. Kalvin Carter added 10 points and 10 rebounds for the Comets.
Simmons praised his team’s performance.
“We showed a lot of guts tonight,” he said. “This is a great win for us.”
Marsden called it a “hard-fought battle between two evenly matched teams.”
“We had too many turnovers,” he stated.
Marsden also said that he tried to call a timeout near the end of the game, but was not acknowledged by the officials.