DANVILLE – When Tim Maceyko came to Fredericktown in 2018, the young Freddies simply couldn’t string two wins together.
They finished 2-20 that year, with both wins coming in non-conference play. They lost games by one point and 60 points. Mayceko’s club played hard, but their inexperience showed. They were learning the varsity game – and adopting a new culture – all at once.
Now, just two years later, Fredericktown simply can’t lose.
The Freddies (8-3) beat powerhouse Danville (8-2) on the road Monday night, 55-44, marking their seventh straight win and their first against the Blue Devils since 2016.
“Coming here to Danville, it’s hard to play (them). They have a good program, and this court, for some reason, is just difficult for us – and I think for a lot of teams,” Maceyko said. “But we have a lot of confidence now.”
Fredericktown began the season with a 12-point home win over Mount Vernon. After close losses to Cardington, Clear Fork and Highland, the Freddies were able to regroup Dec. 15 and topple Mount Gilead. They haven’t lost since.
“We competed with Cardington, had them in the third quarter – and they kind of got away from us, but that was the moment where I think we started believing …” Maceyko said. Fredericktown lost to perennial power Cardington twice last year, by 42 and 62 points. They fell Nov. 24 by just 8.
“After (the early-season losses) a lightbulb clicked,” Maceyko said. “They’re working together, they’re playing as a team, and we really focus on defense … It’s just been a fun season.”
Defense was the key for Fredericktown on Monday, as the visitors held Danville to just 14 first-half points. They deployed a tantalizing 3-2 zone, using their length and activity to disrupt the Blue Devils’ half-court attack.
“We used to use that 1-3-1 a lot, and I found that this 3-2 fits us better with our personnel,” Maceyko said. “We’re able to spread the court and deny those wings a little bit.”
Fredericktown rotated three guards at the top of its zone – senior Taylor Overholt, junior Celeste Swihart, and sophomore Grace Sipes – and their collective ball pressure gave Danville fits. Overholt set the tone early on, using her length to force turnovers, which led to buckets on the other end.
“Taylor’s always active with her hands and her feet, and she always gets some deflections, and it’s a great thing,” Maceyko said. “Her and Grace and Celeste all do the same thing. That’s a good three-guard combo right there.”
When the Blue Devils were able to penetrate Fredericktown’s zone, they were met by its massive back line, which featured the Bouton sisters: Audrey, a 5-foot-11 junior, and Jill, a 6-foot-1 freshman. They swatted shots and snagged rebounds, preventing Danville’s scorers from getting easy looks at the rim.
“Audrey Bouton, for the first two years, wasn’t healthy. She was hurt,” Maceyko explained. “This is the first year she’s been healthy, and you can see what a force she is. And then her younger sister comes in, and is able to give us some freshman minutes in the middle of that to kind of anchor at 6-foot-1, so that’s a big help, too.”
On offense, Fredericktown found success early breaking Danville’s trademark full-court press. They hit the middle of the floor and advanced the ball up the sidelines, choosing either to attack the rim or pull the ball out to run their offense. Senior forward Jacklyn Nussbaum was particularly dangerous off the bounce Monday, finishing with a team-high 14 points.
“We talked about what they do, with their press and half-court (defense),” Maceyko said. “We rotated real well on that triangle offense, where we were rotating baseline-sideline, and that created some openings against that, which we knew it would. I thought the girls executed really well.”
Fredericktown hit Danville in the mouth early and maintained its edge. Overholt converted two straight layups off of steals, giving the Freddies a 9-2 lead midway through the first quarter. Senior forward Summer Weller drained a pull-up three to put the visitors up 14-8 after one.
The Freddies stretched their lead in the second stanza. After junior wing Alenah Boeshart converted a free throw for Danville, Fredericktown went on a 12-0 run. Five different Freddies scored over the next six minutes, while also holding Danville scoreless during that time.
The Blue Devils knocked down two shots in the final 90 seconds of the half, cutting the Freddies’ lead to 26-14 at intermission.
Danville began to find its groove late in the third quarter. After falling behind 33-16, the Blue Devils scored 8 points in the last 2:09, including two transition lay-ins from junior guard Brooklyn Hess that brought the crowd to its feet. Fredericktown led 33-24 after three periods.
The fourth quarter was a back-and-forth affair. Fredericktown took a 47-32 lead on a put-back from junior Gabby Daniels, but Danville quickly closed the gap.
The Blue Devils turned up the heat on their full-court press, forcing Fredericktown into rushed shots and turnovers. They went on a 10-0 run over the next minute, narrowing the deficit to 5 on two Hess free throws. The point guard scored 11 of her game-high 20 points in the final quarter.
But in the end, it was too little, too late for the Blue Devils. Missed shots and turnovers plagued Danville in the final minute. Swihart stole the ball on the wing with 48 seconds remaining, then pitched it ahead to Audrey Bouton, who dropped it off to Sipes for a lay-in that stretched the lead to 9.
The sequence served as the final dagger, it seemed, in a quarter filled with momentous plays.
“I thought we were on our heels most of that first half and it took us a while to (get settled in),” Danville head coach Matt Proper said afterwards. “It was just too late before we found our wings.”
Danville struggled all night to crack Fredericktown’s half-court zone. By the time it did, late in the fourth quarter, time had all but run out.
“With their length, we didn’t have the same length or height from the perimeter – I felt like our girls were really timid getting shots off,” Proper said. “So I thought if we collapsed the defense a little bit, get it inside, then it might free us up on the outside a little bit. Because we can shoot the ball – I think from three we’re shooting almost 46 percent. But it was just too little, too late.”
As the game sped up in the fourth quarter, Maceyko called several timeouts to settle his team down. At that point, he said, the goal was simply to weather the storm and make it out alive.
“I just told us to settle down and I kept mentioning that if you don’t foul and put them on the foul line, we’ve got the game,” he said. “Our defense is strong enough, I said, ‘No threes, but make them beat you with the short-range twos.’ And that was really the focus.
“I kept trying to settle them back down and say, you know, ‘Stop the fouling, settle down. You’ve been here now a couple times this year, with Cardington and other teams.’ We know what we’re doing.”
Winning games like this – on the road against teams like Danville, which has won two district titles in the last four years – shows how far the program has come since 2018, Maceyko said.
“The same group of freshmen and sophomores when I came over, now they’re juniors and seniors. And you can see the maturity,” he said. “At times, we revert back to some bad things here and there, but for the most part, they’ve really matured and they’re executing well.”
Fredericktown will look to keep its winning streak alive on Wednesday, when it ventures to league-leading Cardington (10-0) for a rematch. Danville will head to Mount Gilead (6-4) the same night.
Coming into this season, Maceyko said Fredericktown knew it had the potential to finish in the upper half of the Knox-Morrow Athletic Conference. The Freddies won nine games last winter, including three in conference play, and moving into contention seemed like a logical next step.
After six games this season, the Freddies (4-2) are tied for second place with Danville and East Knox. Wednesday will mark another opportunity for the program to make a statement.
“We came in feeling like we could be in the upper part of the KMAC this year. We really had that confidence. But at the same time, that wasn’t the goal. The goal was just to get better every day, because we want to make a run in the tournament …” Maceyko said.
“That’s really our focus right now. You use games like this, against good programs, to make ourselves better – and if we get the win, that’s even better. Now we go into Cardington on Wednesday with the same attitude … We were there the first time, can we do it again? Can we hang around and make some noise and see what happens?”
