Friends wins KCAC Tournament

There’s a word for the energy that overcame Friends’ basketball team following two dunks — one an overpowering alley-oop — by senior forward Larry Anderson on Monday night in the KCAC Tournament championship game.

Context was the only way for Falcons coach Dale Faber to interpret it.

“I don’t know what they mean, but my guys are all talking this thing — ‘hype,’” Faber said. “I thought that was what Peyton Manning yelled after ‘Omaha.’ They were all getting hype.”

Anderson’s dunks came during a nearly flawless stretch of offense for Friends, which allowed the Falcons to pull away from a second-half tie against Sterling and win 74-59 to capture the title.

Friends (17-15) automatically qualifies for the NAIA national tournament, while Sterling fell short in the championship game for the third consecutive year.

The Falcons went nearly four minutes in the second half without a missed shot or a turnover, turning a 42-39 lead into a a 59-41 advantage as they scored on eight straight possessions.

The third and fourth baskets during that stretch were Anderson’s dunks, and the true hype came after the first one. Friends guard Cody Scott lobbed a pass toward a guarded Anderson near the basket, and Anderson skied over his defender to nab the ball with his fingertips and slam it.

“I saw he threw it extremely high,” Anderson said. “I didn’t know if I was going to get that one. I figured I was up there, so I might as well dunk it.”

Friends made 12 of 22 three-pointers, but it was after the Falcons made eight three-pointers in the first half that Faber urged them to change the approach and get the ball into the post.

The Falcons eventually took that message to heart but they hardly became one-dimensional. Friends’ two-pointers were achieved with cuts to the baskets, short jump shots, steals that led to fast-break baskets, and Anderson’s dunks.

The second one came on a long outlet pass following a Friends blocked shot. It put Friends ahead 50-39 prompted a Sterling timeout that stopped the clock but didn’t slow the Falcons’ offense – they scored on their next four possessions and later took a 21-point lead.

“That’s all defense,” said Brandon Johnson, who scored 15 points and was one of six Falcons to score at least seven. “When you get the defense going and you get steals and fast breaks, that’s all defense.”

Anderson was all offense, at least when Friends needed a post presence. His nine points beat his season average by nearly four points, and his teammates were more than happy to get hype for him.

“He’s someone everybody loves,” Faber said. “You get excited for a teammate like that. I critique him rather difficultly sometimes, so the guys want to see him succeed because they’re in his corner. Tonight, he lit us, didn’t he? Boy, he was great.”

This story was originally published March 2, 2015 at 10:19 PM with the headline "Friends wins KCAC Tournament."