BASKETBALL: Falcons fail to close out strong vs. Shawnee
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[Elverado led by as many as eight points, but couldn't hold on for a win against Shawnee last night, as the Redskins clipped the Falcons 65-57 in Elkville.
After Shawnee started the game up 10-2, the Falcons quickly re-grouped in a timeout with 4:07 left in the period. Daltun Hasty connected on a three-pointer twelve seconds later and had eight points in the opening period.
Kyle Whittington drove baseline for a lay-up with 3:00 left in the quarter, then Dalton Porter made it a 7-0 Falcons run with his basket.
After a Shawnee bucket stopped the run momentarily, Whittington had a stick-back with 2:00 to go, then Hasty drove, pulled up and drew a foul on his jumper with 1:33 on the clock. Hasty made the free throw and helped Elverado to a 15-13 lead after one.
Casey Hicks's turnaround sparked another 7-0 Falcons run in the second, with Bryce Mathis taking Hasty's fast-break pass in for two and a foul, then adding another transition lay-up with 5:10 to go in the half as Elverado led 22-17.
The Falcons led by one at the break, and by as many as eight in the third quarter after threes by Whittington and Hasty, but Shawnee refused to quit.
With Elverado on top 46-39 with 1:10 to go in the quarter, the Redskins got back-to-back triples to cut the lead to a single point, then completed their 10-0 run with a fast-break lay-up from Aiden McMahan with 6:50 left in the contest.
Andrew Livesay had put Shawnee up one with two free throws earlier in the fourth, a lead the Redskins never relinquished, outscoring Elverado 20-11 in the final quarter of play.
Hasty had a team-high 18 points for Elverado, Mathis added 11, Sean Harrison 10, Whittington 8, Porter 4, and Ben Kempfer and Josh Sarensen 2. Livesay finished with a game-high 22 points for Shawnee.
Elverado will host state-ranked Trico for Senior Night this Friday before beginning play in the Class 1A Sesser Regional against Christopher on Tuesday, February 22 at 8:00 p.m.
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