The Fayette boys earned their much-coveted first win of the season with a 50-46 defeat of Central State 8 opponent Linn on the road Friday night.

The win came after a series of near-misses for the Falcons, who are rebuilding under head coach Brandon Friebe, who returned to the program after coaching the team in the early 2000s.

“It feels good to get our first win,” said Coach Friebe. “We’ve really wanted to get this first one for our guys. They have worked so hard since this past summer. We have asked so much of them and they have never stopped working. So, I’m very happy they were able to get this first win.”

Fayette nearly scored their first win on the prior Tuesday in its fire-ever CS8 contest but fell by two points in overtime.

Once again, Fayette benefitted from a standout performance by senior Kaleb Friebe, who led all scorers on Friday with 23 points. He scored 31 in Tuesday’s heartbreaker.

“Kaleb gave us another big game tonight,” explained Coach Friebe. “He was a bit frustrated because he was dealing with some foul trouble. But he is playing pretty cerebral, intelligent basketball right now, and that’s allowing him to have a couple of big games. Despite scoring well for us, he is also distributing the ball really well right now, getting all of our guys involved.”

Freshman Blake Braden and sophomore Colten Cross added nine points each, followed by senior Kevin De La Torre with seven.

Fayette jumped right out to a lead against the one-win Wildcats, taking a 17-4 edge in the first quarter, led by Friebe’s 12 points. Linn inched back by two points in the second quarter, but Fayette held a double-digit lead at the break, 27-16.

“We played really well in the first half,” Coach Friebe said. “Our guys did a great job. We talked about wanting to be patient and look for the seams in their zone early, and it took us a few possessions, but I felt like our guys did a great job, and we were able to get them out of their zone and guard us in man. Then we were able to get some matchups we liked and tried to take advantage of some of those.”

Linn surged back, winning the second half 30-23. Despite poor overall free-throw shooting (16-33), the Falcons were able to hang on for their first win, sinking eight of 12 shots from the foul line in the fourth quarter. All but four of Fayette’s fourth-quarter points came from the charity stripe.

“We hit some big ones late in the game with under a minute left,” Coach Friebe recalled. “We shouldn’t have been in that situation, but we did a very good job of hitting the big ones at the end of the game. I would say our biggest difference in pulling out the wind was some key defensive stops.”

Coach Friebe said his team did not play as well in the second half, but he was proud of how his players kept their composure, slowed their heart rates, and made the crucial plays. “We made a couple of big defensive stops and made some really important free throws at the end of the game. I’m really proud of the composure we showed at the end of this one despite the fact we weren’t playing our best basketball in the second half.”

While the sense of relief is palpable, Fayette can’t fixate for long on Friday’s success. The Falcons compete this week in the high-caliber Harrisburg Tournament. Fayette, now 1-12, drew the eighth seed. They were to face top-seeded Blair Oaks—currently 9-4 overall and receiving votes in the Class 4 polls—at 6 p.m. on Tuesday in the high school gym. 

“We have a Goliath of an opponent Tuesday against Blair Oaks in the first round of the Harrisburg tournament,” said Coach Friebe. “We can’t celebrate this one too long. We’ve got a lot of work still to do.”

The winner advances to the championship semifinals at 6 p.m. on Thursday in the high school gym against either fourth-seeded Centralia or fifth-seeded Marshall. The first-round losers will square off in the consolation semifinals at 6 p.m. on Thursday in the middle school gym.