[Stardust]

WESTWOOD — For Fairview coach Derek Cooksey, the student finally defeated the teacher.

Behind senior Mike Terry’s 21 points, Fairview survived a late fourth quarter scare to defeat East Carter, 55-48, during the Eagles’ Senior Night on Friday.

But for Cooksey, the win had a little meaning behind it. Cooksey is a former Ashland Tomcat who had an assistant coach that would go on to be the current East Carter coach.

Friday night’s win was the first time Cooksey defeated Brandon Baker on a varsity basketball stage.

“As a varsity coach I’ve never beaten them before, and Coach Baker was my coach in high school,” Cooksey said. “We’ve had some good battles with East Carter, and we know what type of team they are. They’re very gritty, very defensive-minded, physically strong and I challenged our guys.”

Fairview (15-11) had big games from Terry, who also had eight rebounds, and Justin Davis, who had 10 points on 4-of-5 shooting from the floor.

Cooksey said one of the keys heading into the game was working the ball inside and using the Eagles’ size to their advantage.

“I thought we had the advantage at the end of the game,” Cooksey said. “We had bigger guys to help combat that. We didn’t get the ball inside as much as we wanted to, but during the crucial moments we did. That’s a sign that shows we know we have to go in then out.”

East Carter (10-16) fought to the very end though, using its press to force Fairview into 13 turnovers, which then turned into easy Raider baskets.

With the score at 51-48 with under a minute left, the Raiders seemed to cause another turnover to get a chance at a tie.

But with diving bodies all around, it was Fairview that ended up with the ball in its hands at the end of the skirmish to help seal the game with free throws.

Baker said the play was a perfect example of what cost them the game.

“We couldn’t catch a break and when you can’t catch a break it’s a tough game,” Baker said. “We just couldn’t catch a break.”

The Raiders were playing their third game of the week, and second in a row after Thursday’s game against West Carter.

And it seemed tired legs affected their chances to break the game wide-open as they couldn’t get their open outside shots to fall, shooting only 3-of-18 from behind the arc.

East Carter had only one 3-pointer fall before the fourth quarter, when it made the other two.

Baker said his team would normally hit those shots, if it wasn’t for fatigue.

“Sometimes your legs aren’t where they need to be for you,” Baker said. “We did have good looks, but we didn’t make enough shots and they took advantage of that.”

East Carter was led by Kyle Stewart, who scored 21 points and shot 50 percent from the field.

According to Baker, Stewart is held back by not getting some of the breaks others do.

“I wish Kyle Stewart would get the friendly breaks a lot of the other players get,” Baker said. “He’s a good player, he just doesn’t get anything.”

With the loss on Friday, East Carter is now on a two-game losing streak heading into the final week of the regular season and home games against Bath County and Boyd County this week.

Baker said while the result doesn’t show it, he has been more than proud of his team’s effort of the court.

“I love the fight in us,” Baker said. “We really competed, and we got after it and made some plays. We just couldn’t get catch that one momentum break.”

Fairview, though, is on the other side of the spectrum, heading into the last week of the regular season on a four-game winning streak.

The Eagles will look to stretch it out to a five-game win steak today, when they travel to the Nicholas County sponsored Shoot for the Cure Classic, to battle Mason County with tip-off scheduled for 2 p.m.

http://dailyindependent.com/localsports/...rter-55-48

[recruiter]

Has Terry committed anywhere yet?

[FIRST]

Terry has D-1 talent in my book.