LEES CREEK — It’s a traditional battle of two neighboring schools, East Clinton and Fairfield located on the border of Clinton and Highland counties.
But in recent years Fairfield has been the superior team. That was the case Saturday night at East Clinton, with the visiting Lions winning over the Astros, 62-21.
Fairfield jumped out to a 21-4 lead at the first quarter break and extended the margin to 40-10 at halftime. The Lions pulled away in the third quarter — played with a running clock due to the huge lead — extending the margin to 57-20. East Clinton managed to score 10 points during the third quarter.
Seven different players combined for the Lions’ 62-point effort, with three players reaching double figures — Larkin Friend with 17, non-starter Chase Newman added 16 and Gabe Fouch scored 13.
Trey House added a pair of “treys” for the Lions while Newman added a trio of triples during his time on the floor. Senior Cade Miller also added a three-pointer for Fairfield.
Second year Lions’ coach Quentin Williams felt his team established the tempo from the start, executing their offensive thrust from the outset and praised his seniors for their strong leadership.
“We had good energy right from the opening tip and kept it up throughout the contest,” Williams said. “We have been preaching about our group of seniors (Friend, House, Fouch, Miller) providing leadership on the floor, and they did that tonight. it set the tone for the contest.”
East Clinton struggled offensively and the Lions’ defensive pressure forced the Astros to commit several turnovers, leading to multiple scores by Fairfield. “Our defensive pressure was really great,” Williams noted.
In the other locker room, Clyde Snow was clearly frustrated by his Astros’ scoring drought.
“Give credit to Quentin and his kids, they just physically dominated us. We just struggled to get anything going and committed way too many turnovers. You can’t expect to win many ball games scoring just 21 points. That’s on me and I’ll take the blame for that. we have to find a way to get more points.”
Xander Lake and Maddix Crowe each scored 8 points for the Astros. Crowe accounted for seven of East Clinton’s 11 second half points. Toby Huff added a trey for East Clinton.
In the junior varsity contest, Fairfield claimed a 45-24 victory.
Both teams return to action on Tuesday night, Fairfield plays its third consecutive road contest at Lynchburg-Clay while the Astros travel to West Union.
SUMMARY
Dec 2, 2023
@East Clinton High School
Fairfield 62, East Clinton 21
F^21^19^12^5^^62
EC^4^6^10^1^^21
(62) FAIRFIELD (2fg-3fg-ft-tp) L. Friend 6-1-2-17, House 0-2-1-7, McIntosh 1-0-1-3, Fouch 5-0-3-13, Lerio 1-0-1-3, Hodson 0-0-0-0, Barrera 0-0-0-0, G. Friend 0-0-0-0, Miller 0-1-0-3, Newman 3-3-1-16. Team Totals 16-7-9-62.
(21) EAST CLINTON (2fg-3fg-ft-tp) Williams 0-0-2-2, Huff 0-1-0-3, Arnold 0-0-0-0, Crowe 1-1-3-8, Lilly 0-0-0-0, Boggs 0-0-0-0, Lake 4-0-0-8, Warner 0-0-0-0. Team Totals 6-2-5-21.
