(photo by Jim Lindquist)
Farmington made the plays down the stretch in a 70-67 win over Holy Angels last month in a thrilling game at Tiger Gym. Tuesday night's Missota Conference rematch in Richfield held no such excitement.
The game was tight for most of the first half with the Stars draining three free throws after an ill-timed Tiger foul with two seconds to play to take a 34-27 halftime lead.
"When we played them the first time we stuck to our game plan and kept our composure," Farmington coach Shane Wyandt said. "This game we unraveled when things didn't go our way.
"Defensively, we got away from our fundamentals. Our transition defense was as bad as it has been all season."
The Stars started to pull away shortly after intermission and the Tigers could do nothing offensively, finishing the second half with just 16 points.
Mackinley Bassett returned from a knee injury and scored a team-high 13 points for Farmington. Darren Beenken and Nick Varner each chipped in with nine. Varner had three of Farmington's seven blocked shots.
The Tigers turned the ball over 17 times and hurt themselves at the foul line, cashing in on just 10 of 22 tries.
Farmington will have just two days to get its game back on track as Northfield comes to Tiger Gym Thursday for a game with major conference and section implications.
"This is a big game for us," Wyandt said. "It's a conference game but it is also against a section team and there are a lot of teams with similar records in the section. This will go along way in deciding how we get seeded for the tournament."
