FAIRBORN — In a nip and tuck battle between two teams with a lot of weapons, a West Carrollton scoring run in the second half proved to be the difference.

The visiting Pirates reeled off a 13-1 scoring run in the third quarter, and West Carrollton escaped the Baker Middle School Gym with a 71-64 win, Dec. 10.

The undefeated Pirates (3-0, 3-0 Miami Valley League) outscored Fairborn 21-11 in the key third quarter.

Tuesday night’s games got under way late, because the West Carrollton freshman team bus arrived late to Baker Gym.

With that in mind, Kalen McKinney very unofficially led all scores with 22 points, including three second-half threes. Austin Jones and Stanley Shrivers each scored a dozen points for the Pirates, and Aighokhai Kadari finished with nine.

In a very physical game, both Kadari and Shrivers fouled out of the game for the Pirates.

Fairborn closed to within two points of the lead at 64-62 on Julius Pullen’s rebound and putback score with 2:17 left to play, and Dwight Lewis responded to a Pirates 3-pointer with a score of his own, but West Carrollton closed out the game with a 4-0 mini run for the game’s final margin.

For Fairborn, Pullen unofficially finished with 20 points, with 17 of that total coming in the second half. Bailey Snapp finished with 15 points, while Patrick Parrish and Lewis each scored eight.

Fairborn falls to 1-3 overall, 1-2 in Miami Valley League play. The Skyhawks return to action on Friday, with a 7:30 p.m. home game against Troy.

West Carrollton is at home at 7:30 p.m. on Friday as well. The Pirates will host Tipp City Tippecanoe.