Down by 10 points in the first quarter, the South Whidbey basketball team rallied in the second and beat Friday Harbor 69-60 on Saturday.

“The guys kept the pressure on and we hit seven treys in the second quarter — three of them from Cole Erikson — to put us out front,” said Falcon coach Chris Ferrier.

It was a competitive contest, Ferrier said.

“Friday Harbor has a scrappy group of guys and they never let up, even though we played

14 guys to their eight,” he said.

Trailing by 13 points only moments before the end of the opening period, Erikson beat the buzzer with what would prove to be the first of eight buckets the Falcons knocked down from beyond the three-point arc before the half. The Falcons turned a 10-point deficit into a seven-point lead over the next eight minutes of play and led 40-33 at the half.

“Shifting our players in and out really wore down their limited bench, and we were able to hold them off,” Ferrier said.

“Our free-throw shooting left a little bit to be desired,” he added, noting that the Falcons were 8-of-20 at the free-throw line over the course of the game, for a sub-par 40-percent rating.

“We left numerous shots from the line short, but we were lucky to win this one,” the coach said. “We came out kind of flat, and

I was very worried early on. But we hustled and scrapped on the defense, and that covers up for a lot of mistakes we make.”

Falcon Sean George felt maybe the long trip north might have made his teammates a little sluggish.

“We started off slow, but when Cole hit those threes — three in a row — it was the spark that got us going,” George said. “It got us back in the game, and that was the turning point. We kept pushing; that’s what we do.”

Teammate Will Hallberg thinks there may another reason why the boys are doing well this year, leading the league at 2-1.

“Our conditioning helped us, we’ve been doing a lot of running and drills that allow us to stay strong through the end of the game,” he said.

Riley Newman headed back for the long ferry ride home with 19 points under his belt, Erikson had 14, Jordan Thornley added 11 and played the point guard spot very well, Ferrier said, while George had a solid nine points.

On Wednesday, Dec. 16, the team welcomes Anacortes to South Whidbey, then travels to Coupeville on Friday, Dec. 18 as league play begins in earnest.

“We are getting more comfortable in the system, comfortable playing in two-minute blocks, and we are starting to understand what makes us go,” the coach noted.

Journal of the San Juan Islands reporter Scott Rasmussen contributed to this story.

Jeff VanDerford can be reached at 221-5300 or sports@southwhidbeyrecord.com.