RICHWOOD — Mid-Ohio Athletic Conference Red Division play began for the Galion Tigers boys basketball team last Saturday when they traveled to Richwood to meet up with the North Union Wildcats.

Galion would come up short in the fourth quarter which would lead to an 82-61 road loss. Galion drops to 1-2 overall and 0-1 in the MOAC while North Union improves to 3-0 overall and 1-0 in league play.

The Tigers would once again see a strong first quarter but would trail the Wildcats at the end of the period by a score of 23-19. Galion would outscore North Union and cut the deficit to two at the half, trailing just 38-36. Galion would keep it close throughout the third quarter, scoring 15 points to the the Wildcats 17 and go into the final quarter down just 55-51. The fourth would be where North Union would pull away and make the win unreachable for the young Tigers squad.

” (The) game was 55-51 to start the fourth and they outscored us 27-10,” head coach Matt Valentine observed. “They switched to a 1-3-1 (zone defense) and we struggled with their length,” he continued.

“Assistant Coach Valentine and myself tried to run a diamond press because we felt like we didn’t have an answer on the defensive glass after Colten Skaggs fouled out with four minutes left in the game. I left us in the press a little too long and they had too many easy buckets.”

As a team, Galion shot 24/51 from the field, including 9/25 from three point range. The Tigers got to the free throw line just eight times against the Wildcats, making just four of those shots. Turnovers proved to be an issue again for Galion as they committed 16 turnovers, many coming in that critical fourth quarter.

After an off-game against the Upper Sandusky Rams, freshmen Isaiah Alsip picked things back up against North Union. Alsip was Galion’s leading scorer for the game with 22 points on 9/12 shooting, including 4/6 from beyond the arc. Gage Lackey score 11 for the Tigers on Saturday on 4/9 from the field which included 3/6 from downtown. Jack McElligott did not play against the Rams due to an illness, contributed 10 points.

Galion will be busy this week as they host the Cardington Pirates in non-conference play on Wednesday Dec.14 and then travel to Delaware for a MOAC Red battle with the Buckeye Valley Barons on Friday Dec.16.