ATHENS — Larkin Friend and Trey House combined for 31 points, but it was not quite enough as the Fairfield Lions came up just short, 48-45, against South Webster in a Division IV regional semifinal game Tuesday at Ohio University’s Convocation Center in Athens.

Both teams entered the game with 22-3 records.

The Jeeps jumped out to a 10-0 lead in the opening 5:47 of the game, never trailed and withstood one tie (24-24) — and finally defended the Fairfield three-ball in the closing 11 tics.

That’s right — it was a close encounter of single-digit margins for the final 25 minutes and three seconds, although the closest the Lions came to taking the lead was a 24-24 third-period tie with 4:25 to go.

For the final 17 seconds, after South Webster’s Christian White swished a pair of free throws for the 48-45 Jeep lead, it all come down to South Webster making sure the Lions didn’t drain a three-pointer.

The Jeeps had three fouls to give, and so they did, running three seconds off the clock to eight.

Trey House of the Lions then had a three-pointer blocked by the Jeeps’ junior Dylan Shupert, with 5.2 tics to play, but the ball belonged to Fairfield after the block went out of bounds.

Gabe Fouch then missed a corner three-pointer, although once again, the ball belonged to Fairfield.

Finally, with 1.2 seconds left, the Lions’ Larkin Friend fired away from the wing with a three —but the Jeeps defended it well, and hung on.

“We had no fouls, so we just fouled them, and we told them to give up a layup, but just don’t give up a three since we were up three,” said Jeeps coach Norm Persin.

Prior to the three Fairfield attempts in the final 5.2 seconds, the Lions had landed 6-of-15 from three-point territory —or 40 percent.

Those three misses made it a 33-percent clip (6-of-18), as both teams shot the exact same percentage from distance (33 percent) and from the free-throw line (100 percent).

The biggest difference —the Jeeps shot 57 percent (20-of-35) to the Lions’ 44 percent (18-of-41), and South Webster’s 10-0 lead from the opening tip to the 2:13 mark of the first quarter.

Finally, Fairfield got a Logan McIntosh three-pointer with 63 seconds left in the first quarter — and a pair of House foul shots.

But South Webster’s 6-7 junior standout Eli Roberts, who made both of the Jeeps’ three-point attempts, rained one in at the first-quarter buzzer.

In the end, and a in game of small spurts both ways, those three points from Roberts ended up being the scoreboard difference.

So too was his four-point play — a three and a free throw which broke the 24-24 tie with 4:09 to play in the third.

“The game was a game of spurts. It was just battle, battle, battle. We knew they weren’t going away. We had some breakdowns on defense and we let them get to the rim too many times on us. But from there, we were able to knock down free throws down the stretch. It’s a good win, we pulled one out,” Persin said.

Fairfield 5 13 13 14 — 45

S. Webster 13 11 10 14 — 48

FAIRFIELD 45 (22-4) — Larkin Friend 7 0-0 14, Trey House 6 3-3 17, Logan McIntosh 3 0-0 8, Gabe Fouch 1 0-0 3, Cade Miller 1 0-0 3, Griffin Friend 0 0-0 0; TOTALS 18 3-3 45; Three-point goals: 6 (Trey House and Logan McIntosh 2 apiece, Gabe Fouch and Cade Miller 1 apiece)

SOUTH WEBSTER 48 (23-3) — Eli Roberts 6 1-1 15, Christain White 2 2-2 6, Owen Mault 0 0-0 0, Jack Timothy 1 0-0 2, Tyler Sommer 4 3-3 11, Dylan Shupert 3 0-0 6, Hunter Barnard 3 0-0 6, Brock Campbell 1 0-0 2; TOTALS 20 6-6 48; Three-point goals: 2 (Eli Roberts 2)

Reach Paul Boggs at (740) 353-3101 ext. 1926, by email at [email protected], or on X @paulboggssports © 2024 Portsmouth Daily Times, all rights reserved