Staff photo / Preston Byers. Austintown Fitch’s DeShawn Vaughn (2) sets up the Falcons’ offense, while being guarded by Canfield’s Bryce Roberts (13) on Tuesday.

CANFIELD — Austintown Fitch and Canfield, two teams that had not played a game in a week or more, collided Tuesday in a contest that began sloppy and finished with clutch offense and a 51-46 Fitch win.

After six quick, successive points, Falcons head coach Brian Beany called a timeout and directed his frustration at senior point guard Deshawn Vaughn: “Slow down,” Beany said as Vaughn walked to the sideline after another turnover in the first quarter.

Both teams turned the ball over plenty in the opening period, but Fitch’s lapses in focus were just a little more costly early on as the Cardinals took a two-point lead into the second quarter.

After the game, Vaughn said “self-inflicted” turnovers remain the biggest issue for the Falcons.

“We’ve had those lulls in a couple of games where we forced turnovers on ourselves,” Vaughn said. “The defense (isn’t) forcing it; we’re putting them against ourselves.”

While turnovers dominated the first quarter, the second became a showcase for the Falcons’ zone defense, which Canfield coach John Cullen admitted looked quite different from Jan. 5, when the Cardinals beat Fitch in Austintown.

“They played a lot differently than they did before. Usually, they’re spread out in this net. They played a little tighter this time, so they did a pretty nice job with it,” Cullen said. “But, bottom line is we had the right plan to do it, we just didn’t move the ball well enough. You got to distort the zone and you got to move the zone so you can create mistakes for them. And we didn’t do that.”

With Canfield largely unable to get the ball to senior guard Dom Cruz because of the zone and the Falcons’ focus on him, Fitch took a 20-18 lead into halftime.

Turnovers and defense reigned supreme in the first 16 minutes, but for the first eight after the half, it was all offense.

The teams combined for 39 points in the third quarter, one more point than they scored in the first half. The back-and-forth, offensively-driven quarter was mostly even, but the Cardinals managed to regain the lead and take a one-point advantage into the fourth.

The scoring dried up for Canfield in the fourth, though, as potentially difference-making three-pointers clanged off of the rim time-and-time again. On the other end, Vaughn made an acrobatic layup while falling to the ground to take the lead with two minutes remaining. On the next possession, he drove into the lane and dumped the ball off to Allen Hill, who laid it up to make it a four-point game with less than 90 seconds left.

As time ticked down, the Cardinals attempted to sneak out a win by fouling, but Fitch’s Carter Owens made just enough from the line down the stretch to seal the victory.

Beany expressed relief after the seesaw win.

“Both teams, I thought, played really, really hard and went after each other,” Beany said. “Super proud of our guys. We made some big plays when we needed to. There are some parts in the game that were a little sloppy, but anytime you’re dealing with high school kids — they’re still kids — so you (have) to take the good and the bad at times. But I thought we had way more good than bad tonight.”

Both coaches said the long break between games was tough on their teams.

“We hadn’t played in eight days. So I was a little nervous about just the rusty part of it,” Beany said. “You can only practice so much against each other before you want to go play an opponent.”

Cullen said Canfield did not lose because of the relative inactivity, but he said his team can’t give the same looks in practice as real game opponents can.

“We had two games in 16 days, so that’s not a lot. We practice very well for these games, but games aren’t the same as practice,” Cullen said.

Cullen commended Vaughn and his backcourt partner, senior Marcel Finkley, for their stellar play. The guards were the only two Falcons to score in double digits; Finkley had a game-high 15 points and Vaughn scored 13.

Now, Fitch (8-5, 3-1) heads to Boardman on Friday. The Falcons won by 10 in their last meeting. That same day, Canfield (9-4, 3-1) hosts Howland in the teams’ first head-to-head clash this season.

pbyers@tribtoday.com