Lions defend court on homecoming, defuse Rockets
Lead Summary
By
Stephen Forsha-sforsha@gmail.com
LEESBURG — The play of the Fairfield Lions for the first three quarters allowed their less-than-best performance in the final eight minutes to even out as the Lions defended their home court Friday night in a 66-54 victory over the Fayetteville Rockets on Homecoming night.
The win at Grandle Gymnasium against the Rockets not only put the Lions back above .500 overall in the season at 8-7, but gave them a Southern Hills League win as well, as the Lions are now 6-4 in league games. Fayetteville falls to 2-10 overall, 1-7 in the SHL.
The win also came in front of their new homecoming queen Lauren Larrick and homecoming king Chris Ortlieb, who were announced with the honor in pregame ceremonies.
Once it was game time, the Lions dominated the first three quarters, with their defense holding the Rockets to 10 points in the first half and 20 points through three quarters. In that same span, the Lions had quarters of 11, 18 and 17 for a halftime lead of 29-10 and a lead of 46-20 after 24 minutes.
"Defensively, we played well for three quarters. Our goal coming into the game was to take away Iles, because we felt he does a good job of getting the rest of his team involved with the offense," Fairfield head coach Matt Carson said. "I thought for most of the game, we did a good job of that."
In the fourth, with the Lions making numerous lineup changes, the Rockets outscored the home team 34-20.
"It was a lackadaisical effort in the fourth, and that's my job to correct that, so we will correct that in the next four days," Carson said. "That's back-to-back games where we've had a lackadaisical fourth … like I said, that's on me, and I've got to do something to fix that."
Of the 10 FHS players who scored, the Lions were led by junior Quentin Williams with a game-high 18 points. Williams added seven rebounds, six assists, four steals and one blocked shot.
Teammate Brad Clay followed with 13 points and five rebounds. Also in double figures for FHS was Blake Hildebrant with 10 points.
For the Rockets, D.J. Iles and Trevor Clark each had a team-high 14 points.
The Lions dominated the opening quarter with a lead of 11-4. The game was tied once at 2-2, but that was followed by a 9-0 run by the Lions for an 11-2 lead with 2:06 left on the clock. In that span, Williams sank a 3-pointer, followed by a steal and layup by Hildebrant. Clay made a layup, and Williams scored the final basket of the run with points in the paint.
FHS took control of the game in the second frame with an 18-6 output, opening the frame with a layup by Hildebrant and a 3-pointer from Elijah Carmean, increasing the Lions' lead to 16-4 with 6:53 left in the first half.
Following an exchange of points by each team, it was the Lions who tallied a 11-2 run in the quarter's final 3:51. Contributing to the run were Cole Putnam, Williams, Clay, Ryan Bates and Carmean, who made his second 3-pointer of the quarter.
The Lions opened the third with an 8-0 run, pushing their lead to 37-10 with 5:58 left in the quarter. Clay began the quarter with a jumper, followed by two points by Putnam. Williams sank two free throws and followed that with a jumper to give the Lions a 27-point advantage.
"Effort-wise, everybody got involved. The kids had a great effort finding the open guy, moving the ball around and crashing the open boards," Carson said. "The couple times we couldn't get going offensively I wanted to push the ball, get them into a transition game and try to force them to make decisions on the go, but we didn't do a good job of that at times.
"Overall, again, it was a good effort. To rebound with a win after a tough loss like we had Tuesday … it's good."
In the third frame, Williams totaled seven points, and Clay added six points in the third. Putnam scored two field goals in the quarter.[[In-content Ad]]
The Lions added 20 points in the final frame with points by Williams, Austin May, Hildebrant, Clay, Austin Hildebrant, Wes Willey, Putnam and Bates.
"We are going to have to play better for 32 minutes because every game left on our schedule is pretty tough," Carson said. "We are going to have to continue to plug away."
For the Rockets' 34-point fourth frame, they cut Lions' lead as low as 11 points in the final minutes. Clark tallied 12 of his 14 points in the fourth, and Iles had seven points in the same quarter. Toby Lykins scored all six of his points in the fourth. Nick Durham totaled seven of his nine points in the fourth.
The Lions will play again on Friday, Feb. 3 when they travel to Dodsonville to take on the Lynchburg-Clay Mustangs in SHL play. The game will be the homecoming game for LC.
In JV play, the Lions defeated the Rockets 55-15. Bates led the Lions with 14 points. Zach Cox followed with nine points, and Joey Wilson finished with eight.
GAME NOTES: FHS was 17-of-27 from the free-throw line (63 percent) … Fayetteville was 9-of-16 from the free-throw line … FHS had 15 fouls … Fayetteville committed 18 fouls … Fayetteville made three 3-pointers … FHS totaled three 3-pointers.
BOX SCORE
SCORE BY QUARTERS
FAY 04 06 10 34 — 54
FHS 11 18 17 20 — 66
INDIVIDUAL STATS
FHS (66)
Q.Williams 5 (1) 5-8 18
A.May 0 (0) 1-2 1
B.Hildebrant 2 (0) 6-7 10
G.Montgomery 1 (0) 0-2 2
E.Carmean 0 (2) 0-0 6
B.Clay 6 (0) 1-2 13
A.Hildebrant 1 (0) 0-0 2
W.Willey 0 (0) 2-2 2
C.Putnam 3 (0) 1-3 7
R.Bates 2 (0) 1-1 5
TOTALS: 20 (3) 17-27 66
FAY (54)
C.Lykins 2 (0) 0-0 4
D.Iles 5 (0) 4-6 14
T.Lykins 1 (1) 1-1 6
D.Kranz 1 (0) 0-0 2
N.Durham 3 (1) 0-0 9
T.Clark 5 (0) 4-9 14
A.Fowler 0 (1) 0-0 3
T.Koch 1 (0) 0-0 2
TOTALS: 18 (3) 9-16 54
The win at Grandle Gymnasium against the Rockets not only put the Lions back above .500 overall in the season at 8-7, but gave them a Southern Hills League win as well, as the Lions are now 6-4 in league games. Fayetteville falls to 2-10 overall, 1-7 in the SHL.
The win also came in front of their new homecoming queen Lauren Larrick and homecoming king Chris Ortlieb, who were announced with the honor in pregame ceremonies.
Once it was game time, the Lions dominated the first three quarters, with their defense holding the Rockets to 10 points in the first half and 20 points through three quarters. In that same span, the Lions had quarters of 11, 18 and 17 for a halftime lead of 29-10 and a lead of 46-20 after 24 minutes.
"Defensively, we played well for three quarters. Our goal coming into the game was to take away Iles, because we felt he does a good job of getting the rest of his team involved with the offense," Fairfield head coach Matt Carson said. "I thought for most of the game, we did a good job of that."
In the fourth, with the Lions making numerous lineup changes, the Rockets outscored the home team 34-20.
"It was a lackadaisical effort in the fourth, and that's my job to correct that, so we will correct that in the next four days," Carson said. "That's back-to-back games where we've had a lackadaisical fourth … like I said, that's on me, and I've got to do something to fix that."
Of the 10 FHS players who scored, the Lions were led by junior Quentin Williams with a game-high 18 points. Williams added seven rebounds, six assists, four steals and one blocked shot.
Teammate Brad Clay followed with 13 points and five rebounds. Also in double figures for FHS was Blake Hildebrant with 10 points.
For the Rockets, D.J. Iles and Trevor Clark each had a team-high 14 points.
The Lions dominated the opening quarter with a lead of 11-4. The game was tied once at 2-2, but that was followed by a 9-0 run by the Lions for an 11-2 lead with 2:06 left on the clock. In that span, Williams sank a 3-pointer, followed by a steal and layup by Hildebrant. Clay made a layup, and Williams scored the final basket of the run with points in the paint.
FHS took control of the game in the second frame with an 18-6 output, opening the frame with a layup by Hildebrant and a 3-pointer from Elijah Carmean, increasing the Lions' lead to 16-4 with 6:53 left in the first half.
Following an exchange of points by each team, it was the Lions who tallied a 11-2 run in the quarter's final 3:51. Contributing to the run were Cole Putnam, Williams, Clay, Ryan Bates and Carmean, who made his second 3-pointer of the quarter.
The Lions opened the third with an 8-0 run, pushing their lead to 37-10 with 5:58 left in the quarter. Clay began the quarter with a jumper, followed by two points by Putnam. Williams sank two free throws and followed that with a jumper to give the Lions a 27-point advantage.
"Effort-wise, everybody got involved. The kids had a great effort finding the open guy, moving the ball around and crashing the open boards," Carson said. "The couple times we couldn't get going offensively I wanted to push the ball, get them into a transition game and try to force them to make decisions on the go, but we didn't do a good job of that at times.
"Overall, again, it was a good effort. To rebound with a win after a tough loss like we had Tuesday … it's good."
In the third frame, Williams totaled seven points, and Clay added six points in the third. Putnam scored two field goals in the quarter.[[In-content Ad]]
The Lions added 20 points in the final frame with points by Williams, Austin May, Hildebrant, Clay, Austin Hildebrant, Wes Willey, Putnam and Bates.
"We are going to have to play better for 32 minutes because every game left on our schedule is pretty tough," Carson said. "We are going to have to continue to plug away."
For the Rockets' 34-point fourth frame, they cut Lions' lead as low as 11 points in the final minutes. Clark tallied 12 of his 14 points in the fourth, and Iles had seven points in the same quarter. Toby Lykins scored all six of his points in the fourth. Nick Durham totaled seven of his nine points in the fourth.
The Lions will play again on Friday, Feb. 3 when they travel to Dodsonville to take on the Lynchburg-Clay Mustangs in SHL play. The game will be the homecoming game for LC.
In JV play, the Lions defeated the Rockets 55-15. Bates led the Lions with 14 points. Zach Cox followed with nine points, and Joey Wilson finished with eight.
GAME NOTES: FHS was 17-of-27 from the free-throw line (63 percent) … Fayetteville was 9-of-16 from the free-throw line … FHS had 15 fouls … Fayetteville committed 18 fouls … Fayetteville made three 3-pointers … FHS totaled three 3-pointers.
BOX SCORE
SCORE BY QUARTERS
FAY 04 06 10 34 — 54
FHS 11 18 17 20 — 66
INDIVIDUAL STATS
FHS (66)
Q.Williams 5 (1) 5-8 18
A.May 0 (0) 1-2 1
B.Hildebrant 2 (0) 6-7 10
G.Montgomery 1 (0) 0-2 2
E.Carmean 0 (2) 0-0 6
B.Clay 6 (0) 1-2 13
A.Hildebrant 1 (0) 0-0 2
W.Willey 0 (0) 2-2 2
C.Putnam 3 (0) 1-3 7
R.Bates 2 (0) 1-1 5
TOTALS: 20 (3) 17-27 66
FAY (54)
C.Lykins 2 (0) 0-0 4
D.Iles 5 (0) 4-6 14
T.Lykins 1 (1) 1-1 6
D.Kranz 1 (0) 0-0 2
N.Durham 3 (1) 0-0 9
T.Clark 5 (0) 4-9 14
A.Fowler 0 (1) 0-0 3
T.Koch 1 (0) 0-0 2
TOTALS: 18 (3) 9-16 54