Fairfield Lions dominate in district quarterfinal win over Trimble

LEESBURG — From the opening tipoff until the final buzzer sounded, the Fairfield Lions never trailed in their Division VII SE District Quarterfinal game against the No. 12 seeded Trimble Tomcats, winning with a running clock in the second half, by a score of 69-32 in a game that took about one hour to play. 

The No. 4 seeded Lions (17-6) led by 15 points when the first quarter came to an end at 18-3, as the score was tied once at 3-3 with 6:45 on the clock. At the 5:45 mark, the Lions took the lead for good and the rest was history, with the Lions scoring the next 15 points of the game, leading to their fifth consecutive win. 

“We started off the game well. We had a lot of defensive pressure and intensity that led to us pushing the ball in transition a lot,” Fairfield head coach Quentin Williams said. “Our pressure sped them up and made them shoot shots quicker than they wanted to. I was pleased with the way we started.

“It hasn’t been a perfect season, but these kids have gotten better. We have a lot of young kids, and they all have really seemed to connect over the past few weeks and embrace the consistency part I ask of them. They want to continue to get better. We are starting to finally learn what it takes to be a good team.”

Fairfield started the first quarter with a 3-pointer from Caleb Barrera, and following a trifecta by the Tomcats (4-18), the Lions answered with a put-back bucket from Barrera, followed by a 3-pointer and two-point layup from Brody Smith as the sophomore duo put Fairfield in front at 10-3 with 3:50 on the first-quarter clock, forcing Trimble to call a timeout. 

Around one minute following the timeout, the Lions scored two points with a jumper in the paint by Griffin Friend, followed by two points from Caleb Rice. The final four points of the first frame were scored by Barrera and Smith for the 15-point advantage after the first quarter. 

Fairfield continued their dominant effort with a 26-point burst of scoring in the second quarter, while holding Trimble to 11 points for a halftime lead of 44-14. 

“We still had some lapses there in the second quarter and the fourth quarter,” Williams said. “Still some things we have to fix on both sides of the ball, but overall I liked our start and I liked our start.” 

In building their 30-point halftime lead, the Lions had made six 3-pointers in the second quarter, plus they added three two-point baskets and two made free throws. 

Friend made two 3-pointers in the second (back-to-back threes at 6:20 and the 5:47 mark), while Barrera added two points to the Lions’ total. 

There was also Smith with three 3-pointers (2:46, 1:09, .44), and Logan McIntosh added seven points with three made baskets, including a 3-pointer with 2:19 left in the second. 

Chase Newman also scored two points in the second off two made free throws on two attempts to end the scoring in the first half. 

Fairfield led 57-21 after three quarter, outscoring the Tomcats 13-7 in the third frame. Fairfield had one point in the quarter by Friend, six points off three baskets by McIntosh and a 3-pointer each from Dane Hodson (3:30) and Newman (6:04). 

Fairfield added 12 final points in the fourth quarter (Trimble scored 11 points), with Friend hitting his third 3-pointer of the game, Barrera with two points off a basket, Rice scoring four points with a basket and two free throws and McIntosh making a 3-pointer. 

Smith and McIntosh led the Lions with 16 points each. Smith totaled four 3-pointers and two two-pointers. McIntosh collected his points with five two-point baskets and two 3-pointers. 

Friend followed with 12 points by making three 3-pointers, one two-point basket and he was 1-of-2 from the free-throw line. 

Caleb Barrera totaled 11 points for the Lions, making four two-point field goals and one 3-pointer. 

The Lions also had six points from Rice, five points from Newman and three points by Hodson. 

“Caleb Rice did a really good job tonight,” Williams said. “He obviously is one of our better defenders because he’s so fast especially lately, so I ask a lot of him on the defensive end when he gets in the game, but tonight I thought he ran the floor well. He was very coachable, he listened, he adapted, and I thought he did a really good job getting around his primary defender, making that secondary defender commit and finding the next person several times in the second half where he made an extra pass for a wide-open shot. I thought he did a really good job tonight.

“Logan and Quentin did a good job on the rebounds. Both of them had a combined 28-to-30 rebounds. That’s big for us moving forward. Logan also did a really good job of getting his head up on rebounds and we were out running, so he had a lot of good outlet passes, and this was the first time this season he had zero turnovers, which was great to see.”

As a team, the Lions totaled 14 two-point buckets, 12 3-pointers and were 5-of-8 from the free-throw line. 

Trimble’s leading scorer was Brady Jajczyk with 13 points. Mason Coffman followed with seven points. 

The Tomcats totaled three 3-pointers, six two-point baskets and were 11-of-13 from the free-throw line. 

Next for the No. 4 seeded Lions is a game against the No. 5 seeded Western Latham Indians (14-8) on Tuesday, Feb. 25 at Waverly High School (not the Downtown Gym) at 8:30 p.m. in a district semifinal game. Western defeated Glenwood New Boston in the tournament quarterfinals by a 74-32 score.

In a regular-season game on Saturday, Jan. 4 at FHS, the Lions lost in overtime to Western by a 68-66 score.

“We are ready to play, we’ll face Western Latham, and they got the best of us earlier in the season, so we are looking forward to the rematch,” Williams said. 

(Editor’s note: The address for Waverly High School is: 1 Tiger Drive, Waverly, 45690-1253.)

BOX SCORE
THS    03 11 07 11 — 32
FHS    18 26 13 12 — 69

FAIRFIELD (69) — G.Friend 1 (3) 1-2 12, C.Barrera 4 (1) 0-0 11, B.Smith 2 (4) 0-0 16, C.Rice 2 (0) 2-2 6, L.McIntosh 5 (2) 0-0 16, D.Hodson 0 (1) 0-0 3, Z.Ahsaruk 0 (0) 0-2 0, C.Newman 0 (1) 2-2 5. TOTALS: 14 (12) 5-8 69. 

TRIMBLE (32) — C.Cahoe 0 (0) 2-2 2, L.Osborne 0 (0) 3-4 3, M.Coffman 3 (0) 1-1 7, B.Jajczyk 1 (2) 5-6 13, H.Brandenberry 1 (1) 0-0 5, D.Walton 1 (0) 0-0 2. TOTALS: 6 (3) 11-13 32. 

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