FARMVILLE – There's a difference between having a night off and having an off night. In its final non-conference game of the season on Wednesday night, the Fuqua Falcons seemed to blend both of those in a 76-37 loss to Central of Lunenburg at Gilmer Gymnasium.

Playing its third game in five days, with Friday night's contest against Amelia Academy on the horizon, Fuqua got behind early to a hot shooting Central team and never fully recovered.

Fuqua saw its seven-game win streak come to an end.

As Central built on its lead, it appeared like the Falcons decided to cut their losses.

“It wasn't our best effort, to say the least,” said Fuqua head coach Marcus Gregory. “We never got going. We did want to rest our guys for Friday's game, but we still wanted to have a good showing, and we did not get that.

“Central got confident, and that's a big part of this game. They shot the ball really well. Some of that comes from us not being active on the defensive end, but they still had to capitalize on those opportunities, and to their credit, they did.”

Central led 44-17 at the half as the Falcons played deep into their bench. After a slow start to the second half, the Falcons found themselves still trailing 48-23 with 5:44 left.

What little room they had for error if they were to make a comeback was gone. Central delivered the knock-out punch with a 10-1 run over the balance of the quarter, held a commanding 60-24 lead going into the fourth quarter.

From there, the Chargers took out their frustrations of what has been a long season, and perhaps got a spark as they work toward the James River District Tournament.

“Maybe this will help them going from here,” said Gregory, ” and I hope it does. It would make this not look quite as bad.”

Gregory said that some bad habits the team has developed over the last few weeks all showed themselves during the game.

“We've gotten away from our principles, but we've found a way to hide that by winning. We'll look at the tape if for no other reason than to point out some of those bad habits.”

No Fuqua player reached double-figures in scoring. Senior guard Landon Allen led the Falcons with eight points, while Antonio Gonzalez and Carter Cunningham scored seven and Charles Williams added six.

Central was led in scoring by Brandon Seward, who had 22 points, while DJ Haywood scored 15. Joe Taylor added 11 and Dontavias Logan scored ten.

The loss, or the way the loss happened, was a shock for the Falcons who had registered two big victories in the Virginia Commonwealth Conference earlier this week with a 60-47 victory over Tidewater Academy and a 56-36 win over Blessed Sacrament-Huguenot.

Friday, the Falcons who are in good position to secure a second place finish in the VCC, will host Amelia Academy, which is undefeated in conference play.

“Yeah, we'll trade this one for that one,” said Gregory. “We played them well over at their place, and feel we kind of let one get away. This is a tough loss, but we had time to absorb it while the game was still going. I have no doubt that getting up for Friday night's game will be an issue. It's a rivalry game, and it's an opportunity to get this taste out of our mouths.”

WVHL 92.9 FM will carry both the boys and girls games at Fuqua this Friday night. It will be Senior Night for Fuqua's winter sports programs, and the boys game will be the final one in a quadrupleheader.