Fueled by an outstanding first quarter performance along with 28 points from senior Ty George, FHC was able to pick up their tenth win of the season. The Ranger defense was also able to hold the opposing offense to under 60 points for the seventh time this year in the 70-55 win.

“I think it’s a great win,” head coach Ken George said. “They’re a 9-4 team who already has beat a lot of good teams this season. It’s funny, someone just said to me, “Tuesday night, non-leaguea�� like it didn’t matter. In my heart I was thinking, “What do you mean? My guys just came out and played their hearts out like it was the biggest game of the season.a��”

The Ranger offense hit their stride right from the tip Tuesday night as they came out fast to a 5-1 lead. From there, Ty, along with senior Andrew Tebeau and sophomore Jimmy Scholler, were able to push the lead even higher and give FHC a 20-6 advantage at the end of Q1.

FHC’s defense allowed the offense to continue to be elite as they only allowed 6 points in the first quarter and 24 in the first half.

“I don’t think it was anything Xs and Os,” Ty said. “It was all about our mentality. We talk a lot about coming out on Tuesday nights when there isn’t a lot of people and still coming out fired up. We don’t have many opportunities left because we’re already halfway through the season, so we just want to jump on every chance they have.”

The energy wasn’t lacking throughout the night partially credited to the Rangers’ lights out shooting, but also to two more huge plays from junior Tate Hallock.

The first came on a fast break that resulted in Tate slamming one through. The second big play came on another fast break, this time in a two-on-one scenario. Ty brought it up the right side of the basket and the Wyoming defender chose him. Ty went behind the back to Tate on the other side of the lane who finished with another thunderous tomahawk slam.

“The first one really got the crowd going and gave us some energy as a team,” Tate said. “The second one, I really couldn’t tell you what happened. I just kind of went for it. Ty threw it behind his back and I just went up for it.”

The offense came out slow in the second half, only scoring a total of eight points in the third quarter. In the fourth, however, FHC was able to get right back where they wanted and pull away from Wyoming off of shots made by Ty, Jimmy, and Andrew.

Andrew had another quietly great night for FHC as he added 12 points and 6 rebounds, along with an assist, a block, and a steal. He has found consistent playing time in the lineup and has been a solid contributor to the starting five every night.

“I think Tebeau had another good night,” Ty said. “He came out and made his first couple shots and was really active on the glass for us. He’s always big for us and has those quiet nights that people don’t [always] recognize.”

The Rangers look ahead to face the East Grand Rapids Pioneers who are 9-3 on the season but have dropped two straight. With a potent offense, EGR will be a big challenge.

“It will definitely be a big test,” said Ty, who complemented his 28 points with 2 rebounds and 7 assists. “To go to East and play a rival like them will be huge. I’m confident that we’ll come out hot knowing we drew them in districts.”

Coach George takes away his team’s early defensive effort tonight as one of the biggest keys to this 15-point win.

“I thought our defensive focus in that first half was really high,” George said. “We don’t have big guys, but our guys went down and got rebounds tonight. If we don’t do that in the first half, I think we lose the game. So I think our defensive buy-in to the game and our energy were both really high.”