Cunningham goes for 32 as Freddies torch Blue Devils

DANVILLE – By the time Lincoln Cunningham let go of his last shot – coming off a pin-down screen without the ball, receiving a pin-point pass on the right wing and hoisting an ear-high firecracker, arching high into the ether – he knew it was going in.

The sophomore had his feet set, his right slightly ahead of his left, and the timing was just right. Before the ball snapped from his fingertips and splashed through the net, he held his follow-through. The bench held its breath, as did the Fredericktown parents who made the cross-county trip to the standing-room-only road gym, although they knew what the end result would be.

Swoosh.

The red-and-black contingent erupted. Cunningham smiled, very much aware of what had just happened. He’d hit the 30-point mark, a career high. But more importantly, with 3:19 left in the game, his Freddies had all but put the final nail in the coffin. They led Danville by 15, and there would be no looking back now.

Fredericktown (3-1, 3-0 KMAC) ended up winning by a final score of 76-58, marking its second straight game with 70 points or more (the Freddies beat Mount Gilead on Tuesday, 70-50). Cunningham finished with 32 points, shooting 10-of-17 from the field and 8-of-10 from the free throw line.

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He did it in a variety of ways; he scored in transition off of turnovers (many of which he forced by wreaking havoc at the top of the Freddie 1-3-1 zone), drove to the basket, knocked down kick-out threes and converted at the free-throw line.

He’s the youngest of Fredericktown’s three Cunninghams (Clem, his older brother, and Nick, who is unrelated, are seniors). But on Friday, he had the confidence of a veteran.

“You know, he’s just a gamer. He plays hard all the time,” Fredericktown head coach Derek Dibling said. “The guys did a good job of getting him the ball. But he’s just got a knack for scoring. I mean, he does it in a lot of different ways – he got to the free throw line, got to the rim, got it in transition, knocked down some threes.

“In my mind, it was kind of a quiet 30 because he does it in so many ways. And before you know it, you look up and he’s putting together a pretty good night.”

After the game, the youngest Cunningham gave all the credit to his teammates, who found him at opportune times. All he had to do was hit the shots, he said.

“My teammates led me to success, they made me shoot the shots I shot. They got me open, got me set,” Cunningham said. “If my teammates get me open, I can hit mostly any shot I take.”

While Cunningham’s final three put an exclamation point on the night, his presence was felt early and often. In fact, it was Cunningham who helped pull the Freddies out of an alarming deficit to start the game.

Danville (1-3, 0-3 KMAC) began the game hot, as the Blue Devils pushed the ball in transition and knocked down open shots with ease. They scored 20 points in the first quarter, including 14 from senior wing Dylan James.

Danville’s largest lead came at the three-minute mark, when it led 17-8. From there, however, the Freddies began to claw their way back.

They ramped up the defensive pressure and forced Danville to turn the ball over, which led to easy run-outs and put-backs. They ended the quarter on an 11-3 run, capped off by a Mason Finnell turn-around hook shot with 20 seconds left that pulled them within 1.

The Freddies went on another run in the second quarter, this one 9-0, and went into the locker room up 40-31. Cunningham had 18 points by the halftime break, scoring in a variety of ways. His final score of the half was a bank shot over Danville forward Corbin Hazen, as he drove fearlessly at the taller defender and laid the ball in unperturbed.

After an electric first five minutes, Danville had lost its bite.

“I think we got a lot of turnovers in the first quarter that led to some nice baskets. We executed what we were trying to do defensively. And then there in the second quarter, we gave up some open shots and they got on a little bit of a run,” Danville head coach Matt Moore said after the game.

“It kind of killed our streak a little bit, and then we stopped doing the things that got us the lead initially.”

Fredericktown led the entire second half, although it was never by a comfortable margin. Behind the mid-post prowess of Hazen, Danville cut the deficit to 2 points to begin the third quarter. But that margin quickly ballooned once again as the Blue Devils went cold and Fredericktown’s multiple scoring threats heated up.

The Freddies went on an 8-0 run over the next three minutes, and Danville never again came within 5 points. Nick Cunningham scored twice to begin the spurt, following a turnaround shot from the block with a coast-to-coast lay-in that took the wind out of the home crowd’s sail.

Dibling said that after a rough start, he was proud of how his team stuck to the gameplan on Friday night. James scored just 3 points after his monstrous first period, as the Freddies applied constant ball pressure to make Blue Devil ball-handlers uncomfortable.

“We just had to tighten things up a little,” Dibling said. “We know (James) can score the ball and he got free on a couple pretty good looks, and we just had to tighten some things up.”

The Freddies were able to get out in transition and push the tempo, which allowed them to take (and make) more shots than their opponent. They shot the ball 51 times to Danville’s 33 and made 56 percent of their field goals, while also shooting a scorching 81 percent from the charity stripe.

For Danville, James and Hazen topped the scoring column with 17 points apiece. Skyler Moore, the team’s starting point guard, tallied 16 points in the effort.

But Danville’s big three received little help – they accounted for all but six of the Blue Devils’ points. Meanwhile, Fredericktown saw double digit efforts from Jake Partington (17 points) and Nick Cunningham (15 points) to compliment Lincoln, and three other Freddies scored as well.

As Lincoln Cunningham would state afterwards, his performance was a byproduct of contagious team basketball. Fredericktown consistently probed the floor with multiple passes before taking a quality shot, wearing down the Danville defense in the process.

That mentality – and scoring depth – has been crucial to the team’s success so far this season, Dibling said.

“I think we’ve had a different leading scorer at least three or four different games – you know, Nick led one night, Jake Partington led opening night, and then Lincoln goes off tonight,” Dibling said. “It’s just really hard to shut one guy down because the minute you do, you’ve got three, four, five, six guys that step up.”

Moore said after the game that a few stops here and there could have brought his Blue Devils within striking distance of Fredericktown in the second half. However, those stops were few and far between on Friday night.

“I told them it just comes down to taking a little bit of pride defensively and getting stops when we need it, when it’s a couple-basket ball game,” Moore said. “We need those stops so we can go down and score and break that lead down to four or two points, and even take that lead. But you’ve gotta have a little bit of pride in what you’re doing, and I don’t think we did that very well tonight.”

In all fairness, no one has been able to slow Fredericktown down so far this season. The Freddies are scoring 68 points per game (they’ve eclipsed the 70-point mark in three of their four games) and will face their biggest test of the young season on Tuesday when they head to Highland (3-2, 3-0 KMAC), who they are tied with for first place in the conference. The Scots are allowing just 45 points per game.

Danville will go back to the drawing board after losing its third straight game. While the Blue Devils lost their first two conference games by a combined six points, Friday night’s result was different. Moore said the team will need to improve on both ends of the floor moving forward, but especially on defense.

“Giving up 76 points isn’t very good defensively,” said Moore, whose team placed second in the KMAC last season. “We’ve gotta do a lot better job than that.”

Other Friday scores:

• Centerburg beat East Knox, 43-23
• Highland beat Mount Gilead, 55-43
• Northmor beat Cardington, 46-28

Updated KMAC standings (as of Dec. 15)

1. Fredericktown (3-1, 3-0 KMAC)

1. Highland (3-2, 3-0 KMAC)

3. Centerburg (3-2, 2-1 KMAC)

3. East Knox (4-1, 2-1 KMAC)

3. Northmor (2-1, 2-1 KMAC)

6. Cardington (1-5, 0-3 KMAC)

6. Danville (1-3, 0-3 KMAC)

6. Mount Gilead (2-3, 0-3 KMAC)