Fairfield Lions use defensive effort en route to sectional championship

LEESBURG — The more rosters and opponents change for the Fairfield Lions, the more things stay the same, as they won their fifth consecutive Division III SE District Sectional championship on Friday night. This time, the No. 6 Lions used a stifling defensive effort to defeat the visiting No. 11 seeded Paint Valley Bearcats by a 54-32 score. 

Friday night saw the Lions set the tone for the four quarters of action by turning their strong defense into offense, building a convincing 25-11 lead when the first quarter came to a close, which included an 18-0 run from the 5:05 mark to the 1:47 mark that changed the complexion of the entire sectional final contest. 

The early stages of the game saw the Lions and Bearcats go back and forth where the lead was exchanged three times, plus there were two tied scores, leaving the Lions in front 8-7 with 5:05 on the first-quarter clock following a 3-pointer from Tytis Cannon.

That trifecta by Cannon — who finished with 11 points in the win — was the start of the Lions scoring 18 consecutive points, sending the Lions to a 23-7 advantage with 1:47 left on the clock. 

After Cannon’s 3-pointer, it was Reese Teeters’ turn with a 3-pointer from the corner of the court, followed by Cannon stealing a PV pass and going to the hoop on a fast break. Next was a free throw from Cannon for a 14-7 Fairfield lead with 4:00 left in the first quarter.

Teeters led the Lions with 22 points for the game, totaling four two-point baskets, four 3-pointers, and he was 2-of-4 from the free-throw line. 

“Reese was on fire, but he’s a gym rat. With his dad being a teacher at the school, he lives in the gym, but a lot of our kids are gym rats actually. Everybody welcomed their role today, and the best thing about this team is if you watch them — even now they are patting me on the shoulder — is they truly love being here. It is something as a coach you very rarely get, and I’m enjoying every minute of it,” FHS head coach Josh Howland said. 

Teeters caught fire with a jumper, 3-pointer and two made free throws in a span of just over one minute for a 19-7 advantage with 3:00 on the first quarter clock, forcing the Bearcats to call a timeout. 

Cannon added to the Lions’ lead with two made free throws, which completed the scoring run. PV scored two points off a layup by Cordell Grubb, but those points were equaled with another bucket by Teeters, who finished the first frame with 15 points. 

PV scored the final points of the opening quarter for a 25-11 score after a high-paced eight minutes of play by the Lions. 

“The first quarter helped us control the tempo after that and we could slow it down,” Howland said. “That’s one thing we learned from last year is how to control the tempo, to run sets where we kill 35-40 seconds before we attack, and we didn’t hit some of those shots, but still killing 30-40 seconds with a 16-point lead, it is about as good as a basket because the clock is your friend at the point, and we used that to our advantage.”

The Lions led by 14 points when halftime arrived at 36-22, leading by as many as 16 points in the quarter. PV cut Fairfield’s lead to eight points to 27-19, but Fairfield had an answer, and that consisted of two points by Jon Bentley at the 4:09 mark. 

Fairfield eventually scored nine of the next 10 points in the game with Koben Zink scoring two tough points in the paint (finishing the game with five points), then Bentley added two points with points on a fast break, as he totaled 10 points in the win. After a Paint Valley free throw, Cannon knocked down a 3-pointer from the top of the key, pushing the Lions ahead 36-20 with 1:25 left in the first half. 

Grubb ended the quarter with two free throws, leaving Fairfield in the lead by 14 points at halftime. 

It was a quarter of nearly all defense for both teams in the third frame, with Fairfield out-scoring the Bearcats 5-0, putting the Lions ahead by a score of 41-22. The third-quarter points by the Lions were scored by Bentley in the paint and a 3-pointer from Zink. 

“We prepared hard and watched a lot of film on Paint Valley. We had coaches break down every one of their players for the matchups, so we felt like we had a good idea of everything they were going to do,” Howland said. “We’ve had the privilege of watching Grubb play for four years, and he’s definitely he’s an offensive beast. We felt Jon (Bentley) did a nice job on him, and Koben Zink did a nice job on Estep. We had Koben down for 10 rebounds, and our defense was a big part of this win.”

The Lions scored 13 points in the fourth quarter, while Paint Valley added 10 points to their final total. 

Teeters scored seven more points in the fourth frame with a 3-pointer and two two-point baskets. Cannon added two made free throws, while T.J. Mootz and Gunner Bennington each connected with a basket in the final frame. Mootz totaled four points in the win, while Bennington totaled two points for the Lions. 

For the game, the visiting Bearcats were led by Dax Estep with nine points, while Cole Miller and Cordell Grubb each scored eight points. 

The rest of the Paint Valley scoring included Cavan Cooper (three points), Trent Mettler (two points) and Blaine Parker (two points). The Bearcats totaled seven two-point baskets, three 3-pointers, and they were 9-of-14 from the free-throw line. 

For the Lions, they were 7-of-10 from the free-throw line, while also collecting 13 two-point baskets and seven 3-pointers. 

Earlier this season, the Lions also defeated Paint Valley in the regular season by a 64-50 score. 

The win moves the Lions to the district semifinals, which will be played on Saturday, Feb. 26 at 8:30 p.m. at Wellston High School against No. 3 seeded Symmes Valley. Symmes Valley defeated Manchester by a 72-26 score in the sectional finals on Friday night.

“We are looking forward to playing Symmes Valley,” Howland said. “We haven’t seen them play much. I watched them one game earlier, and I know they are athletic and have some good guard play. I’m a little superstitious, and I never look a game ahead in the tournament.

“We’ll prepare hard, and the boys are excited. The goal isn’t to be just sectional champs. This is our fifth in a row, and seven out of the last eight years. This isn’t our goal … our goal is way beyond this.”
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