Chance Short
chance.short@irontontribune.com

PROCTORVILLE — Piketon traveled to the Carl York Center in Dragon country to face Fairland in and out of conference battle to tip off the season for the home team.
Piketon snuck past Valley on Tuesday night in a 54-50 win that came down to the wire, but the Red Streaks wouldn’t get the same results on Thursday.
The Dragons, who were in the elite eight last season when the Coronavirus suspended play, handled business in their first game back by defeating Piketon, 71-44.
Clayton Thomas sparked Fairland in the first quarter with three triples and two of them coming from far beyond the arc to take a 14-5 first quarter advantage.
Thomas would finish the game with 18 points and a game high 7 assists.
Piketon (1-1) struggled to penetrate the middle of the Dragon defense with their dribble hand-off offense. However, Levi Gullion found success in the third quarter but it was not enough to overcome their 36-14 halftime deficit.
Gullion tallied 15 points and 6 rebounds to lead the Red Streaks.
“It’s nice just to be able to play again,” said Fairland coach Nathan Speed.
He also added his thoughts on how his team played in game one saying, “I thought the ball movement was good. Our weak side movement wasn’t there at times, but overall I thought we played well.
“Our bench played great. Nate (Thacker)and Zander (Scmidt) played really well. I thought Nate and Jordan (Williams) did a good job on the boards.”
Thacker scored 12 points and grabbed 7 rebounds for the Dragons while Williams snagged a game high 13 rebounds.
Fairland (1-0) will wait to travel to Gallia Academy next Thursday to open up OVC play.
Piketon 5 9 20 10 = 44
Fairland 14 22 19 16 = 71
Piketon (1-1): (name, points, rebounds, assists) Chandler 11-5-2, Fuller 3-4-1, Gullion 15-6-1, Potts 2-7-0, Swayne 10-6-
Fairland (1-0): (name points, rebounds, assists) Jacob Polcyn 8-3-4, Aiden Porter 16-9-5, Gavin Hunt 6-1-1, Clayton Thomas 18-0-7, J.D. Thacker 1-2-0, Jordan Williams 0-13-3, Zander Scmidt 6-1-1, Zach Tooley 2-0-0, Nate Thacker 12-7-1, Allen 2-1-0.
Rebounds: PHS 29 (Potts 7), FHS 37 (Williams 13). Steals: PHS 3 (Chandler 1, Fuller 1, Potts1), FHS 9 (Schmidt 2). Blocked shot: PHS 0, FHS 3 (Williams 2). Fouls: PHS 9, FHS 14Turnovers: PHS 14, FHS 8. Fouled out: None. Technical fouls: None.