Correspondent photo / Robert Hayes. Fitch sophomore Allen Hill drives and scores during the first half on Tuesday. Hill let Fitch with 11 points, but the Falcons fell at Howland, 49-40.

HOWLAND — Through 17 contests, Howland has compiled its fair share of miles on the road, finding itself in its own lair for only the fifth time this season Tuesday evening. The Tigers defended their home court, knocking off AAC foe Austintown Fitch 49-40, in what Howland coach Dan Bubon described as a “their most complete game of the year.”

Senior Alex Henry led the charge with 17 points, and fellow senior John Perry added eight.

“I just trust that we’re going to get shots at some point if we don’t turn the ball over. It’s the defense. We had a really good plan going into this game against these guys. We thought we made it really hard on their three main guys to get good shots,” Bubon said. “Their two big kids did a really nice job, they normally don’t score much, but that was what we wanted to do, force the ball into them and make them take a good number of shots instead of the three guards.

“Really on offense tonight, what worked is that we made some shots early and got a lead. (The Falcons) played a lot of man tonight, which they normally don’t do. Anytime you make a team do things that they don’t want to do, it should be in your favor.”

Howland (8-9) took the lead first on a three by senior Chris Fenton, who was one of three Tigers that made shots from beyond the arc in the first period, joining junior Luca Fronzaglio and Henry. Austintown Fitch (9-6) kept pace early, tying the game three times early on The Falcons found themselves deadlocked at 14-14 following a bucket off the hands of junior Marcell Finkley, but Howland followed suit with a 6-0 run that featured a nice finger-roll from Henry.

Leading 20-16 heading into the third quarter, Perry made back-to-back shots in the post, but Falcons sophomore Allen Hill responded with five quick points himself, including a three on the left side of the arc. Another Tigers run ensued, with a stepback jumper from Henry, who quickly scored again off a steal. A score from senior TJ Douglas and another Henry bucket capped off a 9-0 Howland run.

“When you start to make a few, you start feeling good. You start feeling that if you make the next one, you’re going to make the one after that,” Henry said. “I just kept looking and trying to find shots. I felt like I was being a little passive in the first half, so I looked to find my open shots in the third quarter. We just had to keep taking care of the ball, taking good shots, and we were able to do that and hit our free throws at the end.”

Following a speedy first three quarters of the contest, the fourth quarter took on a slower pace with an increased use of timeouts and foul calls. Down 35-23, Fitch began to chip away, starting with a fadeaway shot that senior DeShawn Vaughn netted while being fouled. Finkley then followed up moments later with a jumper to induce a Tigers timeout. With nearly four minutes to play, Fitch junior Carter Owens nailed a three to cut the deficit down to only four points at 37-33.

Gone cold, Howland searched for a big time make to extend its lead, and the Tigers found that at the 2:51 mark as junior Anthony Chieffo eyed and lined up a wide-open three in front of the home student section and bench.

“We were only taking good shots. Alex set a drive, kicked out a wide-open three inside out, (so) I had to knock it down,” Chieffo, who scored seven points, said. “It felt great for sure, but I try to stay locked in on (defense) because that’s my thing. Fitch’s 2-3 zone, it’s tough when you have those 6-foot-5 kids in the back waving their arms at you. We hit shots early to get them out of that, (which) really helped us.”

Bubon added, “Defensively, (Chieffo) has arguably been our best player all year. He usually guards the other team’s best guy, and a lot of times he’s just chasing them all over the place. Offensively, he’s more skilled than he shows. We just try to get on him when he’s open, be confident and shoot. He caught that thing, squared up, and out of his hands I said it looks pretty good, and I think it was all net, (which) was really nice.”

Allen Hill paced Fitch with 11, with Finkley adding 10. Alex Hill and Vaughn chipped in six points each.

“It’s hard to win when you score 40 points. It’s not like we didn’t have open looks, I thought our effort was good, we got after it. It wasn’t from a lack of effort, just couldn’t put the ball in the hoop,” Falcons coach Brian Beany said. “When that happens, everything starts to get real tight, and sometimes you press a little bit, but when you hold a team in the 40s, you should be pretty comfortable in that being a win. I thought the twins had a really good game, Allen and Alex. Just head scratching is what I would say.”