6- foot-2 junior Anderson Fark scored 15 of his 18 points after halftime to lead Jackson Center to a 50-36 win over Anna. (Press Pros Feature Photos By Julie Wright-Daniel)
Anderson Fark turns the second half into his party with 15 of his 18 points and leads the Tigers to a 5-1 record in the Shelby County League.
By Marcus Hartman for Press Pros
Jackson Center, OH — Sometimes it pays to read the scouting report.
Veteran columnist Marcus Freeman writes the Buckeyes and sports at large for Press Pros Magazine.com.
Other times it pays even more not to be on the scouting report — or at least not the focus.
The latter was true for Jackson Center’s Anderson Fark on Friday night.
The 6-foot-2 junior scored 15 of his 18 points after halftime to lead Jackson Center to a 50-36 win over visiting Anna.
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“Obviously on the scouting report it was stop the Serr boys and the Klopfenstein kid, and I thought we did a pretty good job containing all three of them,” Anna coach Nathan Barhorst said.
“We thought we had a good guard on him to take him away. We wanted to give help side to begin with, but after the first couple shots, you got to get out and guard right? And then he became a bigger threat out there for him. So unfortunately, that was one that we couldn’t or didn’t stop. We didn’t see that happen in any other games, so he kind of had his coming out party tonight.”
Carter Klopfenstein drives towards the basket against Anna defender Logan Ziegenbusch.
Fark hit a running three-pointer to beat the buzzer at the end of the second quarter. That was his first basket of the game but far from his last. He scored the first six points for the Tigers after halftime to tie the score at 22.
With time winding down in the third quarter, he tied it again at 31 with a layup. Then he watched Preston Serr give Jackson Center its first lead since early in the first quarter with a pair of free throws with 2.1 seconds left.
It was all Tigers in the fourth.
They scored 14 of the first 17 points in the final stanza to build a commanding lead with three minutes left.
Logan Ziegenbusch scored Anna’s first field goal of the fourth quarter on a layup with less than two minutes left, but that was far too late to mount a comeback.
Jackson Center improved to 6-3 overall and 5-1 in the Shelby County Athletic League with its only loss in the league to Botkins on Dec. 23.
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“I felt like our shot selection was overall really good,” third-year Jackson Center coach Aaron Klopfenstein said. “I think our guys understood our game plan, and they waited on their shot, and when they got it, they were ready to rip it. And, you know, in that fourth quarter, we were able to take some longer possessions, and that’s exactly what we worked on this week.”
Dane Reese gets tangled up with Brady Wenning.
Carter Klopfenstein scored 13 points, including seven in the fourth quarter, while Preston Serr had seven and Brendan Serr added four for the Tigers.
Aaron Klopfenstein was happy with his team’s effort overall and agreed with Barhorst’s assessment of Fark’s night.
“That was his coming out party,” Klopfenstein said. “We knew he was capable of it, and he’s got the skill set to do that. We do need that extra scorer where people can’t just lock in on one or two of our main scorers, so that’ll be important for him to continue that aggressiveness moving forward.”
Next up is a Saturday night trip to New Knoxville, where the Tigers will try to get their first win in three tries against a MAC school this season. They lost 64-47 at home to Minster in their season-opener then dropped a 45-42 heartbreaker at Coldwater on Monday night.
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“Right now the MAC is kicking everybody’s butt, so we’ll have to come out and play,” Klopfenstein said. “It’ll probably be a physical game.”
He was happy with how his team put the loss to the Cavaliers behind them.
Ian Stengel eyes the basket before he launches one of his two -three point shots he made for the Tigers.
“I mean, you rely on senior leadership because there’s going to be ups and downs throughout the season,” Klopfenstein said. “And from a coaching staff, we can tell them whatever we want, but the seniors, they’ve set our goals, and they lead the charge in the direction of the team. So the guys came back hungry on Tuesday, and that’s a credit to them.”
As for Anna, Barhorst said the strong first half and second-half fade was a script he’s already tired of seeing this season for the Rockets, who fell to 3-6 overall and 2-2 in league play.
“That’s kind of a repeating theme for us. A lot of the games so far is hitting first-half shots and getting some good movement offensively and then defensively being there too, and building a little bit of a lead here and there,” he said.
The teams traded baskets early before a three-pointer by Anna senior Blake Bixler stretched the Rockets’ one-point lead to 8-4 in the first quarter.
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Anna’s Carter Wenning extended the lead with a trey at the 1:05 mark, but Carter Klopfenstein hit a baseline jumper on the next possession for Jackson Center.
Anna led by as many as eight in the second quarter, but Jackson Center senior Ian Stengel made a three and Brendan Serr followed up his own miss (after a Noah Jenkins layup for Anna) to cut it to three.
Anderson Fark is surrounded by Anna defenders as he drives toward the basket.
Then Wenning had a steal and was fouled on the break to earn two free throws with five seconds left.
He made both to give Anna a seven-point lead, but Fark took the inbound pass and got to the top of the key to let go a three that went in at the buzzer to make it 20-16 Anna at the break.
That turned out to be an ominous development for the visitors.
“I know they hit a crazy three-point shot there to kind of bring it within four, and then we come back and say, ‘We can’t worry about that crazy shot,’” Barhorst said. “Defensively we were happy where we’re at. It’s just that it comes back to, ‘All right, next play.’ I think we get affected mentally, and we’ve been trying to work at that and overcoming it, and I don’t know what it’s going to take the overcome it.”
Bixler and Ziegenbusch both scored six points for the Rockets while junior Rhylan Platfoot led the way with seven.
They play at Indian Lake on Saturday.
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