The Tigers (13-10) are moving on in the District Five Playoffs after capturing the program’s first playoff victory since the mid 1990’s.  “This is a huge win for our boys program.  We haven’t had a playoff victory here in a long time” said Fannett-Metal Coach Paul Coffman.  F-M will travel to #2 seed Berlin BrothersValley on Friday night for a 7:00 contest.  

Fannett-Metal and Turkeyfoot played an even first quarter with the game tied 15-15.  In the second quarter, the Tigers Hunter Hill had five steals converting three of them into layups while Wyatt Appleby and Luke Coffman knocked down a trio of treys to push the Tigers to a 32-23 halftime lead.  

“In the second half I think we thought Turkeyfoot was going to come out and rollover but those guys came to play”, Coffman said.  A few poor shots surrounded by a couple costly turnovers quickly erased the Tigers lead and allowed the Rams to pull within 43-42 at the end of 3rd quarter.  

In the 4th quarter the Rams momentum continued as they built a seven point lead with just over 5 minutes to go.  “I called a timeout at that point and basically challenged the seniors to not allow their careers to end on their home court.   I knew they were all battling some sickness tonight, but I needed them to dig a little deeper the rest of the way”, Coffman said.   Our defense took over at that point and really ignited our offense and the crowd.  Ayden Warren gave us some much needed spark during that run, and these boys found a way to get it done.  The Tigers would battle back to take the lead and take home the 67-58 victory in front of a nice home crowd.  

Leading the way offensively was Hunter Hill with 24 points, Wyatt Appleby with 21 points including five treys. Luke Coffman with 11 points, Ayden Warren 6 points and Evan Wingert with 5 points. The Tigers shot 86% from the foul line tonight.