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Faust not happy with Wash High win

5 min read
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Wash High beat McGuffey by 26 points Friday night, but you wouldn’t know it by talking to Ron Faust.

The head coach of the Little Prexies boys’ basketball program has won 632 games, so he’s been around a long time.

Certainly, long enough to know that sometimes the scoreboard, which read Washington 62, McGuffey 36 doesn’t tell the full truth.

Although Washington (7-1, 8-4) got away with its shortcomings Friday night, Faust knows a lot needs cleaned up before the postseason, and, for that matter, in the final 12 days of the regular season, where the Prexies are fighting it out with Brentwood – who they lead by half a game and play Feb. 23 – for the Class 3A Section 4 title.

“We still have a number of people who don’t understand what we’re trying to accomplish,” Faust said. “We missed tons of layups and free throws, and that will come back to bite us in a playoff game for sure. We only have a couple of weeks to try to rectify that.”

To win a game by 26, however, some things do have to go right. The Prexies had three players in double figures. Tayshawn Levy led the way with 25 points, with Davon Fuse and Brandon Patterson each adding an even 10.

“(Levy is) one of the best players in the conference, one of the best players in the area,” McGuffey coach Mike Fatigante said. “Him and (Brandon) Patterson are really good at what they do.”

For Levy, the key to his success was simple, when in doubt, drive to the basket.

“Taking the ball to the hoop, that’s what I like to do,” Levy said. “That’s what our team likes me to do, taking the ball to the hoop, finishing at the rim. The (jump shot) wasn’t there, so I took it to the hoop and got buckets.”

Levy got his share of buckets, but both he and his head coach said there could have been more.

“He could have had 55 if he could make a layup and shoot a free throw,” Faust said. “I’m serious. He missed tons of layups. Everybody has to play both ends of the floor. We have to get people to buy into that. It’s nice that Tayshawn scores points for us. We always appreciate that, but there are other things that have to be accomplished, too.”

“A lot of us need to improve on finishing at the basket, getting rebounds,” Levy said. (On) defense, we need to key up the other team’s key players.”

After trailing 14-13 at the end of the first quarter, the Prexies opened it up in the second eight minutes, outscoring McGuffey (4-4, 6-5) 15-5 to go into halftime up by nine. Washington held McGuffey to four points in their third quarter, and scored 19 in the period to seal the deal.

Fatigante said that McGuffey took care of the basketball well in the first eight minutes, but couldn’t get it going for the rest of the night.

“They score a lot off of live ball turnovers,” he said. “So one of the things we talked about was that we had to limit our live ball turnovers. We did that in the first quarter. The last three quarters, we did not, and that’s a big reason why the score was what it was.”

The Highlanders don’t have much time to dwell. McGuffey has, in theory, a much easier assignment Saturday afternoon at Waynesburg, who is 2-11 overall and 1-6 in section play.

“Our guys can be upset tonight,” Fatigante said, “but when they wake up, the focus is on Waynesburg. We talk about when you play back-to-back games, it’s not always the best team that wins, it’s the toughest team. We’re going to be sore. They’re going to be sore. We’re tired, they’re tired. So who can push through that better is usually the team that wins.”

As for Friday’s game, Fatigante summed it up bluntly.

“They beat us tonight.”

Faust hopes he won’t be saying those four after an early round playoff game, and he feels that if adjustments aren’t made, that concern could become a reality.

“We don’t run an offense,” Faust said. “Most of the time, we have three guys knowing what defense we’re in. Sixty percent (of players understanding) isn’t good enough defensively. Offensively, we score sometimes because of individual talent, but that also will catch up with you in the playoff games.”

At the end of the night, however, the Prexies got a positive result regardless of their flaws.

“I’m not going to complain about a win,” Faust said. “It’s always nice to win. It’s just that we have to look at the overall picture of where we’re trying to head, and right now, we’re not going strong in that direction.”

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