THOMASVILLE, Ga. – Faulkner trailed for most of the afternoon and found itself down by as many as 13 Saturday before clawing its way to a 69-67 SSAC road victory over Thomas. The pivotal sequence came as the Eagles trailed 67-66. Following a timeout, Jeffrey Selden caught the ball just to the right of the top of the key and fired an overhead pass to the K.J. Rogers on the block. The junior guard caught the ball off the deflection and flushed a two-handed dunk to lift his team to a 68-67 lead.
From there, the Eagles won the game on the defensive end of the floor as they found a way to get two stops before the Nighthawks had possession with 4.6 seconds to play. After a Nighthawk timeout, Rogers stole the inbound pass and went to the line with 2.1 to play. He knocked down the first free throw and missed the second, allowing for a Selden offensive rebound to seal the win.
The closing stanza punctuated a second-half performance during which the Eagles limited Thomas to 23 points and just 34.5 percent shooting from the field. That followed a first half in which the Nighthawks knocked down 51.7 percent of its shots, including seven threes. The 44-point outburst sent the home team to the locker room up by nine.
After falling behind by 13 with 5:23 remaining in the first half, the Eagles ended the period on an 8-4 run to get it back to three possessions. They opened the half on a 17-6 run to take a 52-50 lead on a pair of Selden free throws with 10:09 to go in the game.
Undaunted, Thomas returned fire with an 11-4 spurt to go back on top 61-56 by the 7:21 mark. Faulkner countered with a Rogers jumper at the 7:01 mark and a Jerome Thomas layup with 5:49 to go to get back to within one possession. After Joshua Robertson converted a layup with 4:36 left, the Eagles got a pair of Rogers buckets and a Maliek Sadler free throw to go up one with 106 seconds to go. Robertson followed with a layup with 91 seconds left to put Thomas on top 67-66 and set up the game-defining sequence.
Rogers scored 18 of his game-high 22 points after halftime, pairing that effort with seven rebounds, two assists, and two steals. Selden and Sadler each finished with 11 points while Gabriel Rivera had 10.
The Eagles shot 37.9 percent from the floor and knocked down 20 of 26 free throws. Faulkner won the rebound battle 40-38 and took the points in the paint category 30-24. The Eagles also turned 12 Thomas turnovers into 18 points.
Faulkner (19-7, 10-5 SSAC) returns to action Thursday night when it hosts Blue Mountain Christian for Senior Night in the regular season home finale.
