By Tom Nader

Publisher and Editor

It may have been two days removed from Valentine’s Day, but Field boys basketball head coach Alex Blake was in love with what he saw from his team during Monday’s first quarter.

The Falcons’ offense had spacing, had ball movement and had rhythm.

Blake described it as the team’s best 8 minutes of offense for the season.

And it would be difficult to challenge him on it.

Field blistered the nets for five 3-pointers and connected on eight of its first 11 shots in the opening moments to set a tone and foundation for what became a 69-64 non-league victory at Mogadore.

“That was absolutely our best offensive sequence for the entire season,” Blake said of the first quarter. “Everything was clicking and to see those shots go in early really got us going.”

It was Field’s first win over Mogadore since Dec. 29, 2020 and the program’s first win at Mogadore since Jan. 23, 2018.

The team’s hot offensive start had a lot to do with it, but so did the exceptional play of freshmen Paxson Silveus (25 points, 7 assists, 4 steals) and Mason Fulst (26 points, 9 assists, 6 rebounds, 5 steals).

The pair accounted for 74 percent of the team’s scoring output, combining for 51 points, 16 assists, 11 steals and together shot 19-of-33.

“They both were special tonight,” Blake said. “They gained the trust of their teammates early in the season because they know how to play the game the right way and they play hard. When they get it going, they help all of their teammates feel more comfortable on the court.”

That was the case in the first half when Field (7-15) built a 40-26 lead.

The Wildcats, however, did what they could to create some uncomfortable second-half moments for the Falcons.

Mogadore (4-15) cut its deficit to single-digits multiple times in the third and fourth quarters, getting as close as 47-42 midway through the third behind the hot hand of senior Jordon Smith, who helped power the Cats to a 16-7 run to start the third quarter.

Each time Mogadore seemed to be tilting the momentum to its favor, though, Field’s composed freshmen manufactured all of the right answers.

The biggest of which came in the fourth quarter after the Wildcats once again closed in, trailing 58-52.

On the next three possessions, Silveus assisted on three consecutive makes, with the first being a 3-pointer released by Brian Fox, then the next two set up driving layups by Fulst to balloon the lead back ou too 65-52 on a 7-0 mini-burst.

“Some of those possessions were some of our most composed of the season,” Blake said. “Pax and Mason were able to get some tough shots to fall so that we almost always seemed to have that answer bucket with us tonight. I thought they handled things very well tonight.”

Fox was a third player to reach double figures in the scoring column for the Falcons. He finished with 11 points, connecting three 3s. For the game, Field hit 10-of-23 from behind the arc and was 26-of-52 from the floor.

Mogadore actually won the second half, 38-29, but found its first-half hole too much to overcome.

Smith was electric for the Wildcats in the third and fourth quarters. He scored 28 of his game-high 30 points in the second half (16 points in the third quarter and 12 in the fourth quarter). He also had a game-high 10 rebounds and three blocked shots.

Dylan Hartung was the only other Mogadore player to score in double-digits, and he had 10 points. Tyler Pendergast had a team-high six assists and Gavin Gardner added five assists for the Cats.