Fairfield fends off North Adams for SHAC, senior night win

LEESBURG — Trailing for less than two total minutes in their Southern Hills Athletic Conference game against the North Adams Green Devils, the Fairfield Lions continued to play strong basketball late into the season, as they defeated the visiting Green Devils, 53-49 Tuesday. 

The Lions — who now stand at 13-6 overall and finish the SHAC schedule at 10-3 — not only gained the SHAC win over North Adams, but they put themselves in a second-place tie in Division II of the conference, as they and Peebles each finished 10-3 in the standings. Fayetteville won the SHAC Div. II title with an 11-2 mark. 

Fairfield also celebrated senior night Tuesday, honoring the careers of seniors Quentin McIntosh and Zach Ahsaruk as McIntosh had eight points and 10-plus rebounds in the win, and fellow senior Ahsaruk scored three points for the Lions, sinking a 3-pointer in the third quarter in front of the Lions’ student section. 

“(Quentin) does a really good job rebounding, always. His effort’s always there. Him and Zach, coming out of their senior night with a win is important to me, but the main thing that's important to me is seeing their growth,” FHS head coach Quentin Williams said. “To see their growth from when I first had them to now, and just the competitive spirit that they've built, the camaraderie with their friends, the leadership qualities, the maturity that they've gained throughout these years — that's really something special, and that's why I do this. It’s more than a game tonight. I'm really proud of them.”

The win by Fairfield was a battle from start to finish for each team, but the Lions had the strong start with a 6-0 run to start the first quarter as Griffin Friend and McIntosh (two baskets) made it the six-point lead with 4:56 on the scoreboard. Friend finished with 16 points off three 3-pointers, three two-pointers and one free throw. 

Fairfield held an 8-2 lead with 3:42 left in the opening frame following another bucket by McIntosh, and after a bucket by the Green Devils, the Lions built a seven-point lead with a 3-pointer by Brody Smith, with the junior sinking a basket with 1:06 left in the first for an 11-4 lead. Smith led Fairfield with 21 points in the win, scoring his points with seven two-point baskets, two 3-pointers and one free throw. 

North Adams was the winner of the second frame at 14-10, but it was Fairfield leading at halftime with a 21-18 advantage. 

The Green Devils opened the second quarter with a jumper from Jesse Kennedy, and that was answered with a basket from Friend, who stole the ball at half-court and raced to the basket for two points. Kennedy came back with a 3-pointer for the visiting team, and with 5:44 on the clock, a jumper by Friend lifted the Lions’ lead to six points at 15-9. 

Kennedy totaled 22 points for the Green Devils, as he made four 3-pointers and five two-point baskets. 

North Adams continued to put pressure on the Lions’ defense with nine consecutive points from the 5:08 mark until the clock read 2:06 with a jumper from Thaddeus Moore and a 3-pointer and jumper from Kennedy. After each team drew a charge (Kaleb Elridge of NAHS and Friend of FHS), Kennedy scored two more points off a basket in the paint while being fouled, leaving Fairfield trailing 18-15. 

The Lions didn’t trail for long, regaining their lead with consecutive 3-pointers from Friend at the 1:49 and 14-second mark of the second for a halftime advantage of 21-18. 

Kennedy tied the score to start the third at 21-21, and Friend continued his strong play with a trifecta 45 seconds into the third for a 24-21 score. After the Green Devils made it a one-point deficit, Fairfield’s Smith broke loose with nine consecutive points off four baskets, including a 3-pointer with 6:11 left in the frame. 

After Smith’s surge of scoring the Lions held a 10-point lead at 33-23, with his final two points of that run coming as he drove through the Green Devils’ defense and to the hoop for the layup. 

The game continued with the Lions having points in the third from McIntosh, Ahsaruk (the aforementioned 3-pointer) and Smith, while NAHS had baskets from Preston Call, Kennedy and Moore for a 40-36 score in which Fairfield held the lead after three complete quarters. Moore finished the game with 16 points by making two 3-pointers and five two-point baskets. 

Fairfield led by as many as 12 points in the fourth quarter, starting the fourth with back-to-back baskets by Smith, a steal and layup from Caleb Rice (who totaled five points in the game), and another basket on a fastbreak by Smith for a 48-36 advantage with 5:28 remaining in regulation. 

After 3-pointers from North Adams’ Colin Tolle and Moore — at which point the lead was cut in half to six points — Fairfield came back with a basket from Rice off a long pass for the assist by Smith. Later in the quarter, Rice made a free throw, but the Green Devils came back with a put-back basket by Carson Davis, who totaled six points for NAHS.

The Lions started having some trouble at the free-throw line, ending the game at 2-of-6 from the line in the final 37 seconds. In that span, North Admas not only had the aforementioned put-back basket by Davis, but Moore drilled another 3-pointer, and then he made a layup to get the Green Devils to within three points of tying the score with 7.0 on the clock. 

Fairfield did make one final free throw as Friend made the first of two attempts to give the Lions a four-point win. 
“North Adams, from the beginning of the year to now, is kind of like us. (NAHS head coach) Austin (McCormick) does a really good job, so I think they're a lot better than they were at the beginning of the year,” Williams said. “The biggest thing for us tonight is we obviously came out on top of the scoreboard, but I just felt like we just had more lapses than we typically do tonight, in our coverages and what we're supposed to do. 

“Our attention and detail wasn't great at times tonight. It's good to be in these games like this and be tested like that, but at the same time, we had to shore them up, because tournament’s right around the corner. We’ve still got two games coming up, Friday and Saturday are big games for us, and we need to take this as a learning experience more than anything.”

Williams also spoke about his team and just continuing to improve as tournament time closes in. 

“The big thing is we’ve got to learn from this and have got to get better. Our attention to detail was not very good at some times with our defensive schemes and our coverages and trying to flip back and forth and do some different things,” Williams said. “We got a little stagnant there offensively, especially when they switched to a zone. 

“That's something that most people haven't done to us this year, because of our ability to shoot the ball, so it's good to see it in an actual game. I figured they would go zone at some point. I told them that yesterday, so we were prepared for it, but it's different having in-game reps and practice reps.”

Next for the Lions is a non-conference road game Friday night (Feb. 20) at Hillsboro High School against Highland County counterpart, the Hillsboro Indians (6-15). From there, FHS will play Saturday afternoon (Feb. 21) at home against the Valley Indians with a JV start of 2 p.m., followed by the varsity game.

BOX SCORE
NAHS    04 14 18 13 — 49
FHS       11 10 19 13 — 53

FAIRFIELD (53) — B.Smith 7 (2) 1-5 21, C.Rice 2 (0) 1-2 5, G.Friend 3 (3) 1-2 16, Z.Ahsaruk 0 (1) 0-0 3, Q.McIntosh 4 (0) 0-2 8. TOTALS: 16 (6) 3-11 53. 

NORTH ADAMS (49) — J.Kennedy 5 (4) 0-1 22, P.Call 1 (0) 0-0 2, T.Moore 5 (2) 0-0 16, C.Tolle 0 (1) 0-0 3, C.Davis 3 (0) 0-0 6. TOTALS: 14 (7) 0-1 49.