(photo by Jim Lindquist)
The road continued to be an unfriendly place for the Tigers in a 67-45 loss at Shakopee Thursday night in the Missota Conference opener for both teams.
Farmington (4-9) has won but two of eight games on the road this winter, the last a two-point squeaker over Rochester Mayo last week.
"We came out with little intensity or toughness and got the result that it deserved," Tiger coach Shane Wyandt said.
"We need to do something better as coaches to figure out why we can play so differently from home to the road. I'm at a loss as to how to get my guys to play with intensity and toughness on the road, but I will keep working on it."
The Sabers got the ball inside for easy baskets on their first two possessions of the night to start a trend that would last the entire 40 minutes.
Shakopee's 6-7 sophomore Jake Maiers owned the paint in the opening half, scoring 15 points before intermission as the Sabers built a comfortable 36-21 lead. The winners shot a blistering 56 percent from the field over the first 20 minutes.
The Tigers made just seven of 24 field goal tries in the first half but four of them were three-pointers, two by Alex Chadwick off the bench.
Nick Varner, who had just two points in the first half, scored the fist five after the break to cut the deficit to 10, but the Sabers responded with six straight of their own and never took the foot off the pedal.
The Farmington book showed ten players in the scoring column in the losing effort but only Varner cracked double figures, finishing with 12. Chadwick added eight. Darren Beenken, the team's leading scorer, was held to six.
Maiers finished with 21 and fellow 6-7 sophomore Tyler Weiss added 17 to lead the Shakopee effort.
The Tigers will look to take advantage of their home court Tuesday, Jan. 17, when the entertain Missota Conference rival Holy Angels (6-3) at Tiger Gym. Tip-off is 7:30.
