By Dana Harding
Winning road games in the Summit Conference often requires something special.
During Conway’s 54-50 comeback win over Fordland Tuesday night, the Bears relied on a pair of somethings in Tanner Pippens and Tayler Simpson.
Pippens, a junior forward, turned in a strong defensive effort for the Bears.
Tasked with patrolling the top of the key in Conway’s zone, Pippens hounded Eagle phenom Noah Abbasi. Early on, Pippens worked to deny, muscle, push and bump Abbasi at every opportunity, making it difficult for entry passes from Fordland’s guards.
Abbasi has been a more-than-capable scorer this season, averaging just north of 20 points per contest, and is a deadly passer out of the high post, as well. Fordland’s offense clicks when Abbasi gets the ball up high; however, on this night, Pippens and the Bears proved up to the challenge.
A reserve player last season, Pippens drew high praise from Conway head coach Jeff Cope.
“Not many people understand … Tanner’s a finely-tuned athlete,” Cope said. “He did a great job of simply listening to instructions from the bench during the game, and it was just about him wanting to do something that he’s not real comfortable doing.”
Cope and the Bears limited Abbasi’s touches, making the 6’3” forward work for each of his 11 points in the contest.
“We do take pride in our defense,” Cope said. “Even though it’s a zone, and I know sometimes, people don’t take that with a whole lot of credibility as a defense but, for three years, we’ve been really good in our half-court defense, in our zone, and it really shined tonight.”
While Conway’s defense was a focal point, the offense certainly held its own, as well.
Following a slow start in the opening quarter which ended with Conway up 9-6, the Bears finally started knocking down shots.
A pair of 3-pointers from Gunnar Berger and 9 points from Cody Delcour pushed Conway’s lead to 27-21 at the break.
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Heading into halftime, Fordland head coach Terry Mitchell wasn’t surprised by Conway’s plan of attack.
“They did a great job of not letting [Abbasi] get the ball at the high post,” Mitchell said. “We knew they were going to try to take him away at the high post, because they did the same thing last year. The back side was open, but we just didn’t take advantage of it.”
In the second half, Fordland stormed back behind its talented foursome of Abbasi, Noah Sparks, Hunter Burks and Jake Farnsworth. Balanced scoring and transition opportunities not only brought the Eagles back in the contest, it pushed them into the lead.
A pair of buckets from Burks capped a 6-0 run late in the quarter to give Fordland a 49-45 lead with 3:25 to play.
That’s when things got wild.
A Pippens and-one putback killed the Fordland run and brought the Bears back within a point with just over three minutes to play.
Enter Simpson and his own 6-0, game-closing run.
Following a steal in the corner, Conway’s floor general hit a monster 3-ball to recapture the lead with 1:34 and then a trio of free throws helped seal the win for the Bears.
“I wasn’t having the best game in the first half,” Simpson said. “I just try to do all the little things right. Defend, get rebounds, get stops and get my teammates involved. I came off that three, hit it and it felt good.”
Simpson finished with a game-high 18 points. Delcour and Berger joined him in double figures for the Bears with 14 and 11 points, respectively.
For Fordland and Mitchell, failure to take advantage of scoring opportunities turned the game into a four-quarter dog fight.
Still, the Eagles found themselves in position to put the game away down the stretch. Once again, missed opportunities swung the momentum, and score, away from the home team.
“We were up four, and then we came down and just had two silly turnovers,” Mitchell said. “Then we gave up an offensive rebound and an and-one down there, and they cut it to one. That just completely changed the complexion of the game. We just couldn’t finish.”
Burks led the Eagles with 17 points and was joined in double figures by Abbasi’s 11 and 10 from Sparks.
Fordland (5-2) visits Greenwood this Thursday, Dec. 15, while Conway (3-4) hosts Strafford on Friday, Dec. 16.
Varsity final: Conway – 54, Fordland – 50
Conway 9 18 9 18 — 54
Fordland 6 15 14 15 — 50
Conway Scoring: Tayler Simpson – 18, Cody Delcour – 14, Gunnar Berger – 11, Tanner Pippins – 9, Dylan Dampier – 2
Fordland Scoring: Hunter Burks – 17, Noah Abbasi – 11, Noah Sparks – 10, Jake Farnsworth – 9, Hunter Young – 3
JV final: Fordland – 22, Conway – 19 (2 quarters)
