A 21-point outing by sophomore Dallas Hopson was not enough for the boys JV basketball team to capture a win against the Northview Wildcats on the road. The boys fell 74-64 in their conference opener and now fall to an 0-1 conference record, along with a 3-4 record overall. Dallas’s relentless scoring kept the Rangers in the game and kept Northview from going on any big runs.

“My main mindset was just trying to make plays for the team,” Dallas said. “As soon as I started scoring, I just wanted to stay locked in and focused on what was ahead of us.”

Northview started off the game with a big 8-2 run and played a variety of defenses to force the Rangers into some contested shots. Sophomores Jonah Spates and Peyton Bush got some much better looks at the end of the first quarter and cut the Wildcat lead to 4 at the end of the first. The second quarter started off the same way the first quarter ended, and the Rangers got the Northview lead down to 2 at one point. The Wildcats’ aggressiveness and rebounding overwhelmed FHC, as the Rangers fell down 10 at the end of the half.

Defensively, FHC stepped up at the start of the third quarter. Sophomore Jeremy James made some great hustle plays to give the Rangers extra possessions and cut into Northview’s lead. At this point in the game, FHC look liked they found their groove offensively, as Dallas hit a stretch of threes to force Northview into a timeout and change their defensive strategy. New head coach Gordon Shields was impressed with Dallas’s shooting.

“Dallas’s shooting stroke is awesome,” Shields said. “I like him shooting a lot, and he’s really stepped up for us lately on the offensive end.”

As soon as a very athletic Northview team would get on a run, the Rangers would respond. FHC got more and more comfortable as the game went on, getting baskets in a variety of ways and finding ways to get stops.

“We just started to play some good defense, got some open looks, and got back on defense,” Shields said. “I believe good defense leads to easy offense, so we were just able to turn them over a few times and get some open looks.”

Northview started to pull away in the fourth quarter and came out on fire. The Wildcats got a lot of buckets inside and a lot of easy putbacks to bury the Rangers. Dallas continued his hot shooting, and Jonah got some good tips and steals to give FHC a little life; however, the speed of the Wildcats to get up and down the floor the way they did hurt the Rangers, and FHC fell to Northview on the road 74-64.

One bright spot from this win was that the team maintained a solid attitude and never gave up once they got down throughout the game.

“I think one bright spot, despite tonight’s result, would be our attitude,” Jonah said. “Northview got up early on us, but we weren’t going to let this get out of hand, so I’m proud of us for that.”

This loss puts the Rangers at 0-1 in the OK White conference and 3-4 overall. FHC will have an opportunity to redeem themselves when they square off against the Greenville Yellow Jackets this Tuesday in their first home game.