Staff photo / Brian Yauger. LaBrae forward Lucas Glaser muscles his way to the basket past the defense of Newton Falls freshman Drayson Moore during Tuesday’s game.

NEWTON FALLS — After Newton Falls got the better of LaBrae on their home court earlier in the season, the Vikings wanted a chance at revenge.

LaBrae stormed out of the gate to start the game and established a large lead. Despite a second-half pushback, the Vikings held on to top the Tigers 69-63 on Tuesday night.

LaBrae came out with a different lineup than usual and were able to reap the benefits.

“They’re a tough matchup for us, just because they play so many guards and they spread you out and shoot the three so well. We went with a smaller lineup and then when we go smaller, we’re able to play a little more pressure and man-to-man than when our bigs are in,” Vikings coach Chad Kiser said. “A small lineup let us get after them a little bit better, just playing half-court defense and taking away the drives and the threes.”

The first half of Tuesday’s game was dominated by LaBrae. The Vikings led 42-22 at halftime, led by a 20-point first half from Austin Rowe. Rowe finished with 25 points.

Part of LaBrae’s success came from limiting Tigers junior Phil Davis. Davis finished with 12, but was held to just a single bucket in the first half. Knowing how dangerous Newton Falls can be from beyond the arc, keeping those deep balls to a minimum was crucial.

Those 3-point balls also helped the Tigers (11-6, 9-3) claw back into the game, scoring eight of their 13 3-pointers in the second half.

“We wanted to pressure and not let them dribble into a three. That’s easier said than done, because they do shoot the three so well that if you’re in those driving gaps, you have that chance to give up the kick-out three,” Kiser said. “I thought the first half, we did a great job of showing and then closing out and not giving those threes up. And we didn’t do a terrible job down the stretch, it’s just they had to shoot those.

“They didn’t force them up. In the first half, they got to the point where they had to force them up, and they were hitting … We ended up giving up 13. We gave up five in the fourth quarter alone. They had to. I thought they killed us on that before. They only made nine the first time we played them, and it hurt us. Giving up 13, we were lucky to get away with that.”

Freshman Drayson Moore led the way for Newton Falls with 18 points, 12 of which came from 3-pointers. Dallas Dillon scored 13, Davis had 12 and Leland Vargo added 11.

Once the Tigers found their groove, they were able to hinder LaBrae and cut the score down to a couple possessions. It just was too little, too late.

“We needed to play our game and do what we do,” Tigers coach Roy Sembach said. “We didn’t trap in the backcourt and didn’t pressure nearly enough. LaBrae had a very good game plan and Chad does a great job. They came out and executed, and we kind of let them do what they wanted to do, and that’s not our style. We don’t let you do what you want to do. We stir it up in the back court, we get traps, get you running and then get going and we just didn’t do enough of that in the first half. We trapped well in the second half, a lot more trapping and caused more turnover and a lot more problems.

Newton Falls looks to get back in the win column on Friday with a home game against Liberty.

The league race in the MVAC Gray is a hotly-contested one, but Tuesday’s game has narrowed the field. Ravenna Southeast still has the lead, but LaBrae (13-5, 9-3) is still in the race. The Vikings need to win out and get some help along the way from Brookfield, but LaBrae is only worried about what they can control.

That starts on Friday at home with a game against Champion.