Fayetteville Boys Win First Hoops Playoff Since 2013
The Fayetteville boys basketball team keeps doing things that haven’t been done in a long time.
Earlier this month they won the program’s first outright district title since 1999.
Then Tuesday the Lions played their first playoff game since 2013 as Fayetteville beat Nordheim 69-54 in Flatonia.
What makes all this even more impressive is that the Lions (who now have a 26-7 record) didn’t even make the playoffs a year ago.
“This all started last year in August, they are up every morning in the weight room, spending a lot of time in the gym shooting,” said head coach Jake Diggs. “We had a vision and a goal and they’ve worked their butts off to get there.”
Tuesday the Lions were led by sharp-shooting senior Karson Corn, who made eight three-pointers on his way to team-high 26 points.
“When he gets going, it’s sure fun to watch and makes my job a lot easier,” said Diggs.
“I’ve been shooting since I was really young,” said Corn, who once made 11 threepointers in a game. “When I was young I was a shorter guy, so I had to shoot a lot.”
Junior Jake Kubala scored 13 for Fayetteville and Brody Dooley added 12.
The Lions needed all those contributions against an upsetminded Nordheim team.
These two squads had played one another back in December, with Fayetteville winning by 52.
Tuesday things were much closer. The score was tied 1818 late in the first quarter before Fayetteville took a lead they would never lose. Jacob Torres scored 28 for Nordheim.
“Give credit to Nordheim, they came out and played their butts off and gave us a real test,” Diggs said. “We played them earlier in the year and it was a lot different game. I was proud of our guys for sticking to the game plan and not panicking when they made a bunch of shots in the beginning.”
The Lions say a big part of their turnaround this season has to do with some consistency.
“Fayetteville has had a lot of different coaches. It’s really helped having the same coach in back-to-back years,” Corn said.
“Coach Diggs has taught us so much about basketball,” senior Logan Fritsch said. “He encourages us, and we want to do it for him.”
Now Fayetteville advances to face San Perlita in the next round as the Lions try to keep their historic season going.
2/21/23
Fayetteville 69, Nordheim 54
Fayetteville 22 21 15 11 – 69 Nordheim 18 8 14 14 – 54 Fayetteville scoring: Karson Corn 26, Logan Fritsch 2, Jake Kubala 13, Keagan Supak 4, Luke Korenek 2, Brody Dooley 12, Easton Jaeger 8.