It felt like neither Fairport or Pymatuning Valley could miss early in their NAC matchup Dec. 17. They combined to go 6-for-7 in the first quarter. But then both sides went cold from deep and had different approaches. The Skippers kept trying to find the rhythm from deep, while the Lakers went inside and worked the paint. The latter won out, along with Fairport’s struggles from the free-throw line, and took the 77-71 victory. The Lakers move to 5-2 on the year, and the Skippers fall to 3-1. The shooting from 3-point range started with Pymatuning Valley from Justin Britton with all four of his team’s 3s. Fairport countered with Yomar and Jan Castellano hitting a pair of 3-pointers of their own. Fairport coach Dustin Ettinger knew  while Britton is a different player than his brother, the freshman was able to force Fairport out. “His older brother was a 1,000-point scorer for them,” Ettinger said. “We knew coming into the game he was going to be a knockdown shooter as a freshman. We had to have strong defense. The energy between the two teams was great, and I feel like that intensity was there the entire night. Our team thrives in these close game situations, but sadly we fell short.” Yomar’s 3 and a mid-range jump shot gave Fairport the lead midway through the first. The Skippers continued to keep the lead through the second quarter, but Pymatuning made a run before the half. Chase Guysinger made a layup that pushed the Lakers within a possession. Will Baugher made a circus layup that gave the Lakers the lead. But Yomar made an equally circus-style layup that gave the Skippers the one-point lead at the half. Out of the break was when the Lakers made their move. They started with an 8-0 run to take the lead and were almost up by double figures. But DJ Dambolena took the ball away and pushed it up to Jan, who tightroped the sideline and hit the transition layup to stop the run. Then the Lakers pushed again. An 9-5 run made it a 55-45 lead for Pymatuning Valley going to the fourth. Ettinger highlighted the change in offense as the difference maker in the second and third. Fairport was 3-for-13 from beyond the arc in those two quarters, while the Lakers only attempted one 3-pointer. “Defensively we had some lapses in judgement,” Ettinger said. “We know that they’re big, strong boys. It’s no shock that all of them play football, and they showed that tonight. Our boys are used to it. We’ve been here before. With our guard pressure up front, we were trying to take care of the game.” The fourth quarter was a better tone for the Skippers, as they forced nine turnovers, but a different issue raised its head. Fairport struggled from the free-throw line, going 7-for-16 from the line, and that put a halt on the comeback. Pymatuning Valley didn’t shot a lot better from the free-throw line, going 13-for-20. But the difference came after the misses for the Lakers. They were able to clean up the boards off both misses. Even after a Yomar 3-pointer and a Jan steal and score that cut the lead to five wasn’t able to generate momentum. “We need to keep attacking the cup,” Ettinger said. “Our boys are conditioned enough to get to the line, and we need to be able to make those shots. I feel like we were shooting short with our legs. Pymatuning was hitting them when they needed them in the third and fourth. We’re capable of rebounding in this game but our motto is no looking back, the rearview mirror is off the car.” Yomar finished with 26 points to lead all scorers and both Jan (16 ) and Charie Beardslee (11) were also in double figures for Fairport. Beardslee also had 10 rebounds for a double-double. Pymatuning was led by Britton with 16 points, 14 in the first half. Other Lakers in double figures were Ryan Croston (15 points), Alex Simon (11 points) and Max Smith (11 points). Fairport aims to get back on track with another NAC matchup at Bristol on Dec. 19. THE SCORE (DEC. 17) Pymatuning Valley 77, Fairport 71