Friday night’s rivalry game between Central State 8 opponents Fayette and Harrisburg went in a similar fashion to the girls’ game that preceded it. Harrisburg cruised to a 72-53 win over the Falcons as the team’s futures appear to be taking diverging paths.

For Harrisburg, the rigors of a notoriously difficult schedule appear to be paying off as the Bulldogs are firing on all cylinders. Fayette, however, has dealt with inconsistency over the last month as illness and other factors have kept the starting lineup in constant flux. That has kept the struggling Falcons from playing their best basketball as they fight and claw their way throughout this second year of a rebuilding process under coach Brandon Friebe, who returned for a second stint helming Fayette.

“We haven’t had our full roster since the second week of January. Our roster is different every night,” Friebe said. “We’re challenging our guys to take care of themselves and make wise decisions. But at the same time, we have to be present for what we’re trying to accomplish and for what we want to build in the future.”

Friday’s loss was the sixth in a row for the Falcons after winning just their third game of the season on Jan. 30.

Harrisburg, however, now 12-12 overall, won its sixth in seven games after dropping a three-point decision at CS8 opponent Russellville three nights prior.

“We’re playing some pretty good basketball right now,” said Harrisburg coach Kyle Fisher. “Hopefully we’re not playing our best basketball of the year, but hopefully we’re getting close. We stack our schedule the way we do for all those tough games against those big Class 4 and 5 schools. As long as you can withstand it and not let it break you, you’re going to come out the other side better for it. I think that tough eight-game losing streak against all those teams is a big reason for that.”

Harrisburg and Fayette are no strangers. They’ve battled it out in two different conferences, with the perennially dominant Bulldogs winning the last 10 matchups. In fact, during Friebe’s first stretch leading the Falcons, he coached against Fisher as a player under head coach Steve Combs. Now, Combs, a Missouri Hall of Fame coach, is playing assistant to Fisher, who took over his alma mater nine years ago.

“I remember coaching against Kyle when he was a player in high school,” Friebe said. “We knew what we were going to get. We knew we were going to get physical, pressure defense. We have no way to emulate that in practice. It is impossible to prepare for it. Tonight we just didn’t respond to it the way we needed to match their physicality.”

Harrisburg has uncharacteristically struggled with shooting the ball all season. But the Bulldogs’ defense has kept them in games and can be credited with some wins. The team is known for its high-pressure defense across all four quarters. And after allowing the first basket of the game to Fayette senior Payton Oeth, Harrisburg clamped down hard, allowing just eight points for the Falcons in the opening period while scoring 21 to set an early tone. By halftime, the Bulldogs led 45-20.

“I thought one advantage tonight we might have would be on the glass if we could crash the boards and get some easy ones that way,” Fisher said. “It’s no secret we don’t shoot the ball very well. So anytime we can get some easy ones, whether it be in transition or from the offensive glass, it’s going to help us that much more. The starting group was tremendous on the defensive end and led to a lot of easy ones.”

Harrisburg outrebounded Fayette 41-30, scoring 13 second-chance points and 18 points in transition.

Sophomore Evan Freeman led all scorers with 25 points for Harrisburg off the bench. He led with a dominant performance for the Bulldogs in the paint, sinking 10 of 11 shots from the field and making two of three shots from the arc. He also converted three of four free-throw attempts.

“Evan Freeman had a huge night off the bench,” Fisher said. “He showed the total package tonight. Post moves, offensive boards, stepping out, and shooting in the three. He had it all going tonight.”

Senior point guard Caleb Nichols finished with 10 points with three assists. Senior Rylee Robinson added nine, and junior Jayson Eskew posted eight points with a three in each of the first two quarters.

“Credit to Jayson Eskew coming off the bench and hitting a couple of threes,” Fisher said.

Fayette senior Charles Alexander delivered an outstanding Senior Night performance, leading the Falcons with 20 points with a three and finished 5-for-6 from the line. Junior point guard Colten Cross added 15 with a 3-pointer and scored 10 points in the fourth quarter.

Senior Payton Oeth celebrated a milestone at half court. With 5:06 left in the third quarter, he brought down his 500th career rebound after playing just two and a half seasons, with limited playing time last year coming off an injury.

“He is a competitor,” Friebe said after the game. “He is not a guy who revels in accolades. He was frustrated with the way that he played tonight. He was frustrated that we were getting rolled. But it’s also something he needs to be proud of because he worked really hard to get there. And he didn’t play a whole lot last year. We’re so proud of him.”

With the final week of the regular season upon them, the Bulldogs lost a pre-district matchup at Salisbury on Monday, 68-52, and faced CS8 opponent New Bloomfield for the final game of the regular season on Tuesday at home on Coach Combs Court after the Advertiser had gone to press. One week later, Harrisburg and New Bloomfield will play again in the first round of the Class 2 District 8 Tournament in Tipton, with the Bulldogs as the third seed and the Wildcats seeded sixth.

“It’s a tough district,” Fisher said. “There are anywhere from four to five teams that can win it. We are seeded right where we should be.”

The way the bracket is drawn, Harrisburg could face another familiar opponent if they make it to the finals. New Franklin drew the top seed in the seven-team tournament and has a first-round bye. New Franklin defeated Harrisburg by nine when the two teams met in New Franklin on Jan. 21.

“Hopefully we get there. If that’s who we end up playing, it will be fun, and we’ll take our chances,” Fisher said. “They are a really good ball club. We’re going to have to put together three good games to get out of that district.”

Meanwhile, Fayette is scrambling to put all the pieces together as the regular season draws to a close this week. The Falcons pulled off their fourth win of the season against former Lewis & Clark Conference rival Marceline on Monday, 58-47, on the road, before hosting CS8 opponent South Callaway for the final home game of the season on Tuesday after the Advertiser went to press. Fayette concludes the regular season at Jamestown on Thursday.

Friebe always reminds his players that once the regular season ends, every team starts the postseason 0-0. Fayette still faces an uphill battle as the seventh seed in next week’s Class 2 District 7 Tournament at Glasgow. The Falcons will take on second-seeded Glasgow at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday.

“It’s hard to argue for anything better than [the seventh seed] when you’re sitting at 3-20. We’ll get ready for Glasgow, but we still have three games next week,” Friebe said after the Harrisburg game on Friday. “We’re 3-20, but we still think we can win any game we play. We’re not going to change our mentality.”

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