Lions race away from Mustangs in 4th quarter for SHAC win

For nearly three and a half quarters, the Fairfield Lions and Lynchburg-Clay Mustangs battled closely on the scoreboard, exchanging baskets and leads, and both teams playing tough in their Southern Hills Athletic Conference rivalry game.

Then, following a timeout with around 6:00 left in the fourth quarter at Lynchburg-Clay High School, the visiting Lions were the team that was able to pull away and secure the win, as FHS defeated the host Mustangs, 60-49.

The Lions entered the fourth quarter with a 45-43 lead following a 3-pointer at the end of the third frame — at the buzzer — by Trey House, but neither team was able to make a basket for the first two minutes of the fourth frame, forcing FHS head coach Quentin Williams to call a timeout.

After that timeout, the Lions added to their lead for a five-point advantage with a 3-pointer from Larkin Friend with 5:32 on the clock, but the Mustangs answered when Denver Clinton — a sophomore — sank a turnaround jumper with 5:06 left in the fourth frame for a 48-45 deficit for the host Mustangs.

Again, Friend scored more points, as this time the Fairfield senior faked out the defender in the paint, then took the shot under the hoop for two points with 4:49 left in the final quarter for a five-point Lions lead at 50-45. Friend finished the game with 22 points.

The Lions later drew a charge, and from there, as the physicality of the game increased, the Lions battled their way for another two points in the paint, with Logan McIntosh making a basket in the paint. Later, he scored two more points with a put-back basket after grabbing the offensive rebound to put the Lions ahead by nine points at 54-45 with 2:49 remaining in the game.

The Lions later called a timeout with 2:03 on the scoreboard and added to what became a 9-0 run with a 3-pointer from House, from the corner of the court, at the 1:45 mark of the fourth, as Fairfield increased their lead to 12 points at 57-45.

Clinton brought the Mustangs back to within 10 points of the lead with two made free throws, but the Lions ended the game by drawing fouls and making three final free throws on six attempts, with Gabe Fouch sinking one and Friend scoring the final two points from the free-throw line with 6.2 left, giving the Lions an 11-point win.

“I was pleased with our resiliency in the fourth quarter and to not fold despite it not being our best night. Especially on the defensive end, we made a lot of uncharacteristic mistakes,” Williams said. “We have to shore up a lot of defensive rotations, and we need more of a spark from our bench, especially with Chase Newman not being able to play Tuesday.

“I thought Trey and Larkin brought good energy that helped changed the tide to the game in the second half. We have to be smarter. Several of us were in foul trouble (Larkin, Logan, Trey), and it hurt our continuity and flow of the game, but big positives were I liked our energy to end the game and resiliency we showed to stick together despite making a lot of mistakes on the defensive end.”

LCHS head coach Brian Callahan also spoke about the game.

“I would say it was a good game for three and a half quarters. We made some mistakes down the stretch, they hit some shots. I thought defensively, we played pretty well. I thought the ball movement was good early for our team as well. You know, it just came up a little short tonight. It was a good game, though,” Callahan said.

“We hit some shots. Cody Bell hit some threes early. Braedon West hit a couple threes and had a big third quarter, had eight points in that third quarter. We’ve just got to continuously make sure that we're working on and off the ball, making hard basket cuts, making sure if we're drawing help, we're finding our teammates and things like that. We've got some guys I think that can really help us this year.”

The first quarter saw Fairfield hold a 14-11 lead after eight minutes with the Lions scoring the first five points of the game with a basket by Friend to start the scoring in the rivalry game, followed by a 3-pointer from the corner by Cade Miller with 7:05 left in the first for the 5-0 lead.

Clinton began his solid game — as he finished with 27 points — with four straight points, scoring his first basket of the game under pressure, followed by two points on a fast break with 6:33 on the first-quarter clock, for a 5-4 score still in favor of the Lions.

A steal and fast-break layup by McIntosh — who totaled 14 points — left the Lions ahead by three points, but Cody Bell had other plans for the Mustangs, knocking down a 3-pointer with 4:56 left in the first, tying the score at 7-7.

As the first frame continued, the score was tied a 9-9, but the Lions broke the tied score with a 3-pointer from House — who totaled 14 points — at the 3:21 mark, putting the Lions ahead by a 12-9 score. FHS built a 14-9 lead with a basket by McIntosh, but LCHS made it a three-point differential with the final basket of the opening frame, leaving the score at 14-11.

Lynchburg-Clay outscored the Lions 17-12 in the second quarter and took a two-point halftime lead at 28-26.

The score was tied three times in the second quarter at 16, 18 and 26 points.

In the second frame, Fairfield had six points from Friend on three baskets, four points by McIntosh with two buckets, and Janre Lerio scored two points with a basket in the frame.

The Mustangs had nine points from Clinton in the second quarter, with four two-point baskets and a free throw conversion. Also in the second, Bell made a 3-pointer, Asher Faust totaled three points and Austin Bell made two free throws as the Mustangs took the aforementioned two-point lead.

Fairfield tied the score early in the third quarter with a basket by Friend, making it a 28-28 score with 6:58 on the third-quarter clock. The Mustangs quickly regained the lead with a basket in the paint at the 6:18 mark for a 30-28 lead, only to see FHS sink a 3-pointer at the 5:28 mark, for a 31-30 score in favor of the visiting Lions.

The Mustangs equaled the feat with a 3-pointer from Braedon West for a two-point lead at 33-31 with 4:49 left in the third. The trend continued with the Lions and Mustangs exchanging baskets and the lead as the Lions tied the score at 33 following a basket by Friend, only to see the Mustangs take a three-point lead with a 3-pointer from West — his second of the quarter — for a 33-33 score.

After the teams battled from the free-throw line, it was LCHS in the lead at 38-36, but Fairfield rallied for the lead with a 3-pointer from the corner by Friend with 2:55 left in the third, putting the Lions ahead by a point at 39-38.

After a Fairfield timeout, the Mustangs regained the lead with a basket by Clinton and a free throw made by Austin Bell. Fouch tied the score at 41-41 with 1:13 left in the quarter as he drove the ball to the hoop, and the Mustangs took back the lead with a basket by Clinton.

With 20 seconds left in the third, House made a free throw, and then as time expired, he made the clutch 3-pointer at the buzzer for the 45-43 advantage to end the third.

More Fairfield final scoring included Fouch (5), Lerio (2) and Miller (3).

Final scoring for the Mustangs included Faust (3), West (8), Cody Bell (6), Austin Bell (3) and Josiah Burns (2).

Callahan said his team is improving.

“If you look at that first game, I mean, it was 43-40 the last three quarters. I mean, we had one bad quarter,” Callahan said of their season opener last week. “I think that was also a bad quarter for guys — somebody made the comment to me like I had one guy who had really major varsity experience, and none of those guys have ever played a varsity game, and I think they were a little, you know, shell-shocked early. Once they've settled in, I think they've shown that they can play with anybody.”

The win moves Fairfield to 2-0 in the SHAC, and 3-0 overall. LCHS now stands at 0-2 in the SHAC and 0-2 overall.

Next for Fairfield is a SHAC game on Friday, Dec. 8 at home against the Ripley Blue Jays.

The Mustangs play again on Saturday, Dec. 9 at home in a non-conference game against Green.

BOX SCORE
FHS    14 12 19 15 — 60
LCHS    11 17 15 06 — 49

FAIRFIELD (60) — L.Friend 6 (2) 2-2 22, T.House 0 (4) 2-4 14, L.McIntosh 7 (0) 0-0 14, G.Fouch 2 (0) 1-4 5, J.Lerio 1 (0) 0-0 2, C.Miller 0 (1) 0-0 3. TOTALS: 16 (7) 5-10 60.

LYNCHBURG-CLAY (49) — A.Faust 1 (0) 1-2 3, B.West 0 (2) 2-2 8, C.Bell 0 (2) 0-0 6, A.Bell 0 (0) 3-4 3, J.Burns 1 (0) 0-0 2, D.Clinton 12 (0) 3-5 27. TOTALS: 14 (4) 9-13 49.