Staff photo / Preston Byers Austintown Fitch’s Junie Higgs dribbles the ball during the Falcons’ win vs. Cardinal Mooney on Tuesday in Austintown.

AUSTINTOWN — It was not Austintown Fitch’s prettiest or most dominant win of the season, but the Falcons nonetheless led wire to wire in Tuesday’s 60-46 home victory vs. Cardinal Mooney.

“These kids grind it out; they’re gritty,” Fitch head coach Brian Beany said. “We may not look good at times, but we find a way. We regroup. And you can tell today — no school, a little sluggish. But they found a way to get it done.”

The start to Tuesday’s contest definitely did not indicate any sluggishness from the Falcons, though, as they jumped out to a 15-2 lead, holding the Cardinals to a single field goal in the first four-and-half minutes. Fortunately for Mooney, guard Dante Turner managed to get the deficit back to eight with back-to-back baskets to close the first quarter.

A flurry of 3-pointers kicked off the second period, with two of them coming from Mooney, which pulled within four and, a few minutes later, three with a Tyler Guerrieri field goal. However, Fitch stretched out its lead with five straight points and by holding the Cardinals scoreless for more than three minutes. A Kingston Powell triple in the final minute, the first of five 3-pointers on the night for him, put the score at 25-20 in favor of the Falcons at halftime.

The teams traded threes and 3-point plays for the first two-and-half minutes of the third quarter; Fitch opened with six straight points in the first 24 seconds of the half before the Cardinals responded with a Grayson Dubos and-one, which was quickly followed by a Brady Evans 3-pointer and a Powell triple in response.

The effect of the shotmaking was minimal, as the Falcons, who were buoyed by 12 of Evans’ game-high 20 points, maintained the eight-point lead they took 10 seconds into the quarter. Still, Mooney did not get much closer than that the rest of the way.

“It’s either we’re down 8-0 or 8-2 or 9-2, or we’re up 11-2. It’s really never even in the first quarter [or to start a half],” Mooney head coach Carey Palermo said. “I wish I had the answer or the recipe to start games and halves better. We just haven’t done it.”

On two occasions, the Cardinals trimmed their deficit to six in the fourth quarter, but a pair of free throws and a 3-pointer by E.J. Giles quickly created a double-digit difference between the teams. Not even two triples by Powell, who had a team-high 16 points, could make a dent in the lead. Instead, the Falcons, four of whose starters finished in double figures, continued to pull away to seal its third win in its last four games and hold their 10th opponent this season to 50 or fewer points.

“I told those guys after the game; a lot of times, we’re our own worst enemy as far as sloppy turnovers or some empty possessions. It’s not so much about what the other team does, but it’s just kinda us. We just got to clean that up,” Beany said.

Unlike its opponent Tuesday, Mooney (7-6) has dropped three of its last four games. The Cardinals, who host Canton Central Catholic on Friday, was on a three-game winning streak until a loss to South Range on Jan. 6.

“We haven’t done anything consistently,” Palermo said. “There were stretches today where we defended great, we rebounded great. There were stretches today where we missed a rebound. There were stretches today where our transition was bad. There were stretches today where we were really moving the ball, and there were stretches where it was stagnant. A consistent, 32-minute game — we’re still working toward that. We’re not going to stop. … There’s a team that can compete for a district championship in that locker room, but we just need to be more consistent in everything that we do.”

Fitch (9-4, 3-1 in All-American Conference) returns to league play on Friday, when the Falcons will be on the road to face Warren G. Harding in a rematch of a buzzer-beating Fitch win the first time the teams met this year.