(Game played Dec. 13) Fairfield Union made a big run against host Circleville in the second half Friday night on the way to a 52-39 Mid-State League win.

The Tigers (1-3, 0-2) had gotten off to a quick start in the second half with a three-pointer from Riley Gibson, baskets from Brandon Parr and Craig Fleck and a free throw from Evan Justice to get in front of the Falcons 29-28 with 4:44 left in the third quarter.

From that point, the Falcons (4-0, 2-0) scored the next 12 points and 22 of the next 24 over the ensuing eight minutes to get out in front 50-31.

“I’ll never be OK with a loss, but the way our kids fought and competed — that’s a really good basketball team there in Fairfield Union,” Circleville coach Cody Carpenter said. “I really couldn’t ask for more when it comes to the effort. They’ve been that way since Day 1 and really stepped it up tonight.

“When the fatigue set in there late in the third quarter we started to become undisciplined with certain plays and that’s when they made that big run. They’re too good of a basketball to dig yourself out of a hole, especially when we were that tired.”

It was a fairly even game in the first half thanks to eight points in each of the first two quarters from Justice, on the way to a game-high 19 points.

“We want him to be the man. If he gets good looks, we want him to take it,” Carpenter said. “He’s the type of kid that when he hit that first one, he really turned it on. He moved well without the basketball and we did a good job of screening to get him open.

“We were also making winning plays on the defensive side and scrapping.”

Along with the 19 from Justice, the Tigers added 10 from Gibson.

The Falcons used size to their advantage all night with 6-4 guard Chase Poston knocking down 17 points, 6-5 post Huston Harrah scoring 12, 6-5 post Andrew Moll scoring eight and 6-4 wing Charlie Bean scoring eight.

Fairfield Union also ended the night with a 29-24 rebounding edge, led by Moll and Harrah with nine each.

Justice and Parr lead the Tigers with five rebounds each.

Circleville is back in action Tuesday night at Teays Valley while the Falcons host Amanda-Clearcreek.

• Fairfield Union was a 43-27 winner in the JV game.

Scoring for the Tigers were Trevor Coleman with 11 points, Drew Moats with six, Kaleb Nungester and Ian Warden with four each and Dom Morgan with two.

Fairfield Union 52, Circleville 39

Fairfield Union — Poston 7-0-17, Magill 1-0-2, Bean 3-1-8, Bernard 0-2-2, Qualls 1-0-3, Moll 4-0-8, Harrah 6-0-12. Three-point goals — Poston (3), Bean, Qualls. Total — 22-39 3-4 52.

Circleville — Gibson 3-1-10, Justice 6-3-19, Parr 1-0-2, Bell 2-0-4, Fleck 2-0-4. Three-point goals — Gibson (3), Justice (4). Total — 14-48 4-9 39.

Quarter scores  1  2  3  4  F

Fairfield Union  13  12  15  12  52

Circleville  11  10  10  8  39