Lions rebound with 1st win of season
Lead Summary
By
The Highland County Press-
LEESBURG — The Fairfield Lions not only celebrated their second Hall of Fame class Saturday night, but celebrated their first win of the season. FHS rebounded one night after losing their season opener with a 51-41 non-league win over the Southeastern Panthers.
One night before the Lions were unable to defend their home court with a winning score, but that wasn't the case 24 hours later, though FHS did trail 9-7 after the first quarter.
FHS scored 10 points in the second quarter, while holding the Panthers to nine, but still trailed 18-17 at halftime.
The Lions switched up some of their defense schemes in the third frame, and with that held SEHS to two points, while their (FHS) offense scored 14 points to take a 31-20 lead.
"The key to this win was our third quarter," Fairfield head coach Matt Carson said. "We told the kids to 'go get it' at halftime and they did.
"This was an absolute team effort and team win. We were down 9-0 in the first quarter and went up 15-12 in the second before they (SEHS) made some quick points in transition."
Though the Panthers scored 21 points in the fourth, the Lions did add 20 points to their lead for the 10-point win.
Quentin Williams again led the Lions in scoring, this time with 17 points. He did most of his damage from the free-throw line by scoring 13 of his 17 points from the charity stripe. Williams had a double-double with 10 rebounds.
Austin May and Brad Clay each scored eight points. May sank two 3-pointers and Clay sank four two-point buckets.
"The play from Austin (May) off the bench was what we needed (Saturday)," Carson said. "He was the one who stepped up (Saturday), and the next game it could be someone else.
"That is the identity of this team … someone every night has to step up. This was just a collective team win."
Blake Hildebrant followed with seven points (all seven points from the free-throw line). Also scoring for FHS were Gage Montgomery (2), Austin Hildebrant (3), Wes Willey (2) and Cole Putnam (4).
The Lions were 21-of-30 from the free-throw line.
Leading SEHS was Nick Kellough with 17 points and Michael Brown with nine.
The win puts FHS at 1-1 overall, and they will play their annual rivalry game with Highland County counterpart Hillsboro (0-2) on Tuesday at Hillsboro High School, with the freshman game starting at 4:45 p.m.
Honored in the 2nd Class in the Fairfield Hall of Fame were: J. Errol Vaughn, Olen Grandle, James R. “Pickle” Priest, Debi Hattan Back and the 1982 Fairfield High School softball team.
BOX SCORE
SCORE BY QUARTERS
SEHS 09 09 02 21 — 41
FHS 07 10 14 20 — 51
INDIVIDUAL STATS
FHS (51)
Q.Williams 2 (0) 13-17 17
A.May 1 (2) 0-0 8
B.Hildebrant 0 (0) 7-8 8
G.Montgomery 1 (0) 0-0 2
B.Clay 4 (0) 0-1 8
A.Hildebrant 1 (0) 1-2 3
W.Willey 1 (0) 0-0 2
C.Putnam 2 (0) 0-2 4
TOTALS: 12 (2) 21-30 51[[In-content Ad]]
One night before the Lions were unable to defend their home court with a winning score, but that wasn't the case 24 hours later, though FHS did trail 9-7 after the first quarter.
FHS scored 10 points in the second quarter, while holding the Panthers to nine, but still trailed 18-17 at halftime.
The Lions switched up some of their defense schemes in the third frame, and with that held SEHS to two points, while their (FHS) offense scored 14 points to take a 31-20 lead.
"The key to this win was our third quarter," Fairfield head coach Matt Carson said. "We told the kids to 'go get it' at halftime and they did.
"This was an absolute team effort and team win. We were down 9-0 in the first quarter and went up 15-12 in the second before they (SEHS) made some quick points in transition."
Though the Panthers scored 21 points in the fourth, the Lions did add 20 points to their lead for the 10-point win.
Quentin Williams again led the Lions in scoring, this time with 17 points. He did most of his damage from the free-throw line by scoring 13 of his 17 points from the charity stripe. Williams had a double-double with 10 rebounds.
Austin May and Brad Clay each scored eight points. May sank two 3-pointers and Clay sank four two-point buckets.
"The play from Austin (May) off the bench was what we needed (Saturday)," Carson said. "He was the one who stepped up (Saturday), and the next game it could be someone else.
"That is the identity of this team … someone every night has to step up. This was just a collective team win."
Blake Hildebrant followed with seven points (all seven points from the free-throw line). Also scoring for FHS were Gage Montgomery (2), Austin Hildebrant (3), Wes Willey (2) and Cole Putnam (4).
The Lions were 21-of-30 from the free-throw line.
Leading SEHS was Nick Kellough with 17 points and Michael Brown with nine.
The win puts FHS at 1-1 overall, and they will play their annual rivalry game with Highland County counterpart Hillsboro (0-2) on Tuesday at Hillsboro High School, with the freshman game starting at 4:45 p.m.
Honored in the 2nd Class in the Fairfield Hall of Fame were: J. Errol Vaughn, Olen Grandle, James R. “Pickle” Priest, Debi Hattan Back and the 1982 Fairfield High School softball team.
BOX SCORE
SCORE BY QUARTERS
SEHS 09 09 02 21 — 41
FHS 07 10 14 20 — 51
INDIVIDUAL STATS
FHS (51)
Q.Williams 2 (0) 13-17 17
A.May 1 (2) 0-0 8
B.Hildebrant 0 (0) 7-8 8
G.Montgomery 1 (0) 0-0 2
B.Clay 4 (0) 0-1 8
A.Hildebrant 1 (0) 1-2 3
W.Willey 1 (0) 0-0 2
C.Putnam 2 (0) 0-2 4
TOTALS: 12 (2) 21-30 51[[In-content Ad]]