Lady Lions claim outright Div. II SHAC championship
Lead Summary
By
Stephen Forsha-sforsha@gmail.com
LEESBURG — For the first time in program history, the Fairfield Lady Lions are the outright Division II Southern Hills Athletic Conference champions, and they claimed that title in convincing fashion on Thursday night by defeating the West Union Lady Dragons, 95-41 in front of their home crowd at Grandle Gymnasium.
The Lady Lions (10-1, 15-4) earned no less than a share of the title on Monday with a win at Ripley, but on Thursday their win was even more convincing as they held a 15-point lead at the end of the first quarter and easily continued to add to their lead.
A huge part of the Lady Lions firing on all cylinders and blasting their way to what was a 30-point second frame and a 50-15 halftime lead was the play of freshman Samara Cannon, who tied the quarter-scoring record set the day before by Grace Shope as Cannon scored 19 points in the second frame.
Cannon finished the game with a career-high 25 points, netting 23 of those points in the first half.
“Samara is one of the few players I’ve seen who can get hot and put up a lot of points in a hurry,” FHS head coach Chad Hamilton said. “That was one heck of a first half she had.”
As for the Division II conference championship, Fairfield —who have played three games in the past four days — clinched the title with a 9-2 record in SHAC competition with two games remaining on their conference schedule next week with games at Whiteoak and vs. Lynchburg-Clay.
“Winning the Division II conference title outright has been our goal from the beginning of the year,” Hamilton said. “It is nice to meet our goal. I’m proud of their play and of all the work they’ve put in, and I’m happy they were able to accomplish that. It is a big deal for our program.”
Thus far in conference play, Fairfield is averaging 60.4 points per game and allowing 41.5 ppg. Five of the 10 SHAC wins by the Lady Lions were by at least 23 points, and three of those wins were by 30 or more points.
In strictly Div. II SHAC games this season, they are averaging 58.7 ppg and allowing just 36.1 ppg. Also for FHS, they’ve scored 664 points in SHAC play this season, and their two losses came against SHAC Division I opponents Eastern Brown and North Adams.
Now for the Thursday night game itself, the Lady Lions outscored the Lady Dragons, 20-5, with FHS beginning the game with a 20-0 scoring run that included seven points from Shope, six points from Blake Adams, four points by Cannon and three points from Ashley Sowards, with Sowards sinking a 3-pointer at the 3:24 mark of the quarter for an 11-0 lead.
The second quarter was even more impressive by the Lady Lions as they tallied 30 points with Cannon getting into a scoring groove by making three 3-pointers in the frame, along with four two-point baskets and two free throw makes on two opportunities for her record-tying 19-point quarter.
Also for FHS in the second were five points by Shope, including a 3-pointer with 5:01 on the clock to make it a 32-8 lead. Cannon’s treys came at the start of the frame (7:21), followed by another one at the 4:10 mark for a 39-10 advantage. The final 3-pointer for Cannon came with 3:37 left in the opening half for a 42-10 lead.
The trio of Carli Reiber, Kami Magee and Adams each scored two points in the second quarter as Magee made a layup at the 6:29 mark of the quarter, followed by points from Reiber at the 5:15 mark and Adams made two free throws with 2:40 left in the quarter for a 48-10 advantage.
With Fairfield outscoring the Lady Dragons 30-10 in the second for a 50-15 lead by the time halftime arrived, the fate of the game was sealed, but the drive by the Lady Lions was still evident as they had a total of eight players combine for a 24-point third frame, eventually winning the quarter at 24-17 and taking a 74-32 lead after three frames.
Fairfield began the third by scoring nine straight points with Brianna Barnes scoring the first two points of the quarter, followed by a three-point play by Adams with 7:04 on the scoreboard.
From there, Cannon stole the ball and went to the hoop for two points, and Adams tallied another two-point basket with 6:30 left in the third for a 59-15 lead. Adams finished the game with 15 points.
For the entire third frame, Shope sank her second 3-pointer of the game with 5:55 left on the clock, plus Shope added two free throws, Cannon scored two points and Lyndee Spargur also added two points for FHS. Shope finished with 23 points for the Lady Lions.
Magee had a four-point third frame for the Lady Lions, and Molly Thackston had a two-point basket. Adams finished with five points in the third, and Barnes had four points total in the quarter. Also in the third, Lauren Arnold was a part of the defense of the Lady Lions, plus made some nice passes to help teammates score points.
In the fourth quarter, FHS scored 19 more points with Sowards making a two-point basket, along with Shope and Cannon adding to their overall totals. Also for FHS in the fourth, Spargur scored four points, while Thackston and Adams each added two points to their final scoring totals.
“The thing about our team is we don’t have a big dropoff from one girl to the next. We have a lot of girls who play a similar role. Grace is our main offensive threat, but as we saw tonight, Samara, Blake and Brianna all can score points,” Hamilton said. “When one is off, another can step up and score points.
“We really wanted to work on our man-to-man defense, and at time we were lackadaisical and I wasn’t really thrilled with that, but the girls picked it up and got the job done.”
In all, the Lady Lions made seven 3-pointers with Cannon leading the way with three, while Sowards and Shope each had two. From the free-throw line, the Lady Lions were 14-of-19, with Adams going 5-of-5 and Shope finishing 5-of-6. Cannon went 3-of-4, and Magee was 2-of-2.
No JV game was played on Thursday night.
The Lady Lions (10-1, 15-4) earned no less than a share of the title on Monday with a win at Ripley, but on Thursday their win was even more convincing as they held a 15-point lead at the end of the first quarter and easily continued to add to their lead.
A huge part of the Lady Lions firing on all cylinders and blasting their way to what was a 30-point second frame and a 50-15 halftime lead was the play of freshman Samara Cannon, who tied the quarter-scoring record set the day before by Grace Shope as Cannon scored 19 points in the second frame.
Cannon finished the game with a career-high 25 points, netting 23 of those points in the first half.
“Samara is one of the few players I’ve seen who can get hot and put up a lot of points in a hurry,” FHS head coach Chad Hamilton said. “That was one heck of a first half she had.”
As for the Division II conference championship, Fairfield —who have played three games in the past four days — clinched the title with a 9-2 record in SHAC competition with two games remaining on their conference schedule next week with games at Whiteoak and vs. Lynchburg-Clay.
“Winning the Division II conference title outright has been our goal from the beginning of the year,” Hamilton said. “It is nice to meet our goal. I’m proud of their play and of all the work they’ve put in, and I’m happy they were able to accomplish that. It is a big deal for our program.”
Thus far in conference play, Fairfield is averaging 60.4 points per game and allowing 41.5 ppg. Five of the 10 SHAC wins by the Lady Lions were by at least 23 points, and three of those wins were by 30 or more points.
In strictly Div. II SHAC games this season, they are averaging 58.7 ppg and allowing just 36.1 ppg. Also for FHS, they’ve scored 664 points in SHAC play this season, and their two losses came against SHAC Division I opponents Eastern Brown and North Adams.
Now for the Thursday night game itself, the Lady Lions outscored the Lady Dragons, 20-5, with FHS beginning the game with a 20-0 scoring run that included seven points from Shope, six points from Blake Adams, four points by Cannon and three points from Ashley Sowards, with Sowards sinking a 3-pointer at the 3:24 mark of the quarter for an 11-0 lead.
The second quarter was even more impressive by the Lady Lions as they tallied 30 points with Cannon getting into a scoring groove by making three 3-pointers in the frame, along with four two-point baskets and two free throw makes on two opportunities for her record-tying 19-point quarter.
Also for FHS in the second were five points by Shope, including a 3-pointer with 5:01 on the clock to make it a 32-8 lead. Cannon’s treys came at the start of the frame (7:21), followed by another one at the 4:10 mark for a 39-10 advantage. The final 3-pointer for Cannon came with 3:37 left in the opening half for a 42-10 lead.
The trio of Carli Reiber, Kami Magee and Adams each scored two points in the second quarter as Magee made a layup at the 6:29 mark of the quarter, followed by points from Reiber at the 5:15 mark and Adams made two free throws with 2:40 left in the quarter for a 48-10 advantage.
With Fairfield outscoring the Lady Dragons 30-10 in the second for a 50-15 lead by the time halftime arrived, the fate of the game was sealed, but the drive by the Lady Lions was still evident as they had a total of eight players combine for a 24-point third frame, eventually winning the quarter at 24-17 and taking a 74-32 lead after three frames.
Fairfield began the third by scoring nine straight points with Brianna Barnes scoring the first two points of the quarter, followed by a three-point play by Adams with 7:04 on the scoreboard.
From there, Cannon stole the ball and went to the hoop for two points, and Adams tallied another two-point basket with 6:30 left in the third for a 59-15 lead. Adams finished the game with 15 points.
For the entire third frame, Shope sank her second 3-pointer of the game with 5:55 left on the clock, plus Shope added two free throws, Cannon scored two points and Lyndee Spargur also added two points for FHS. Shope finished with 23 points for the Lady Lions.
Magee had a four-point third frame for the Lady Lions, and Molly Thackston had a two-point basket. Adams finished with five points in the third, and Barnes had four points total in the quarter. Also in the third, Lauren Arnold was a part of the defense of the Lady Lions, plus made some nice passes to help teammates score points.
In the fourth quarter, FHS scored 19 more points with Sowards making a two-point basket, along with Shope and Cannon adding to their overall totals. Also for FHS in the fourth, Spargur scored four points, while Thackston and Adams each added two points to their final scoring totals.
“The thing about our team is we don’t have a big dropoff from one girl to the next. We have a lot of girls who play a similar role. Grace is our main offensive threat, but as we saw tonight, Samara, Blake and Brianna all can score points,” Hamilton said. “When one is off, another can step up and score points.
“We really wanted to work on our man-to-man defense, and at time we were lackadaisical and I wasn’t really thrilled with that, but the girls picked it up and got the job done.”
In all, the Lady Lions made seven 3-pointers with Cannon leading the way with three, while Sowards and Shope each had two. From the free-throw line, the Lady Lions were 14-of-19, with Adams going 5-of-5 and Shope finishing 5-of-6. Cannon went 3-of-4, and Magee was 2-of-2.
No JV game was played on Thursday night.