ATHENS — The Fairfield Lions traveled to the Convocation Center on the campus of Ohio University in Athens on Sunday but, were unable to overcome the Coal Grove Hornets as their season ended in the Division IV Southeast boys District Semifinal by a final score of 81-46.
The Lions were led in the game by Wyatt Willey who tallied 14 points and hit two three pointers for the Lions as they tried to keep up with the sharp shooting Hornets.
Sam Buddlemeyer was next for Fairfield with 12 points on the night, Bryson Simmons totaled 10 points and Connor Priest and Jon Bentley had two points apiece to round out the scoring for the Lions.
The Hornets were led by Corey Borders who hit six three pointers on the night en route to a game high 20 points.
Aaron Music was next for Coal Grove with 13 points on the night, while Evan Holmes finished with 12 points including two three pointers in the final frame.
Evan Gannon, Nate Harmon and Payton Smith each had eight points for the Hornets while Trevor Carey had six.
Rounding out the scoring for Coal Grove was Kyle Sites, Jaylen McKenzie and Malachi Wheeler had three, two and one point respectively.
Coal Grove started the game strong and never looked back as they scored 25 points in the first quarter while limiting the Lions to just 12.
Borders, Gannon and Smith combined for five three pointers in the quarter with Smith and Gannon recording two each including the final one of the quarter by Smith that put the Hornets up 25-10 late in the quarter.
Buddlemeyer hit a layup in the closing minutes of the quarter to provide a 25-12 score in favor of the Hornets after the first quarter.
In the second quarter of play the Lions struck first when Priest hit a layup with 6:15 to play in the quarter but, the Hornets answered with four straight points to extends their lead to 29-14 with 5:43 to play in the first half.
The Lions were able to cut the lead to 11 points at 29-18 on a jumper by Saunders with 4:45 to play but the boys from Coal Grove simply could not be stopped and finished the quarter with a 15-7 run that was capped with a three pointer at the buzzer by Borders from a few feet beyond the half court line that gave the Hornets at 44-25 halftime lead.
The Lions limited Coal Grove to 10 points in the third quarter but were only able to muster nine points of their own and trailed 54-34 after the third quarter of play.
Coal Grove exploded in the fourth quarter for 27 points while limiting the Lions to 12. The Hornets hit four triples in the final period and finished the game with 14 three pointers in total as they cruised to the 81-46 win.
Score by quarters
FHS 12-13-9-12
CGHS 25-19-10-27
Fairfield: Setty 1/2-1; Buddlemeyer 6-12; Willey 4(2)-14; Saunders 2-1/2-5; Simmons 3-4/5-10, Priest 1-2; Bentley 2/2-2
Totals: 16(2)-8/11-46
Coal Grove: Music 5(1)-0/2-13; Borders 1(6)-20; Gannon 1(2)-8; Holmes 2(2)-2/2-12; Harmon 3-2/2-8; Sites (1)-3; Wheeler 1/2-1; McKenzie 1-2; Carey 3-6; Smith 1(2)-0/2-8
Totals: 17(14)-5/10-81
Ryan Applegate is the Sports Editor for The Times-Gazette. Reach Ryan Applegate at 937-402-2572, or on Twitter @RCApplegate89.
