The Fairfield boys and girls varsity basketball teams hosted the McClain varsity basketball teams on Tuesday and Wednesday respectively. The Lions and Lady Lions winning by scores of 55-37 and 68-43 respectively.
Girls
The Lady Lions started off Wednesdays game in a groove offensively in the first quarter outscoring the Lady Tigers 15-11 to take a four point lead into the second period.
In the second McClain tied the game at 15 with just over seven minutes to play, from there Fairfield’s Brianna Barnes took over and scored eight straight points to push the lead to 23-15 and force McClain head coach Jarrod Haines to call a timeout.
Following the break in play the Lady Lions continued to score at will against McClain with a 16-0 run to claim a 31-15 lead with 1:27 to play before the half. The Lady Tigers outscored the Lady Lions 4-2 to close out the second quarter and head to halftime trailing 33-19.
The third period saw the Lady Tigers employ a full-court trap pressure defense that allowed them to climb to within 11 points at 48-37 with under two minutes to play in the quarter and trail by 13 at 50-37 heading to the fourth.
Fairfield turned up the defense in the final period to limit the Lady Tigers to only six points in the deciding frame and secure the 68-43 victory.
Grace Shope led the Lady Lions with 26 points on the night. Shope became the second leading scorer in school history, boys or girls, with 1,372 career points behind only Nathan Van Winkle.
(Box Score)
FHS: 15-18-17-18
MHS: 11-8-18-6
Fairfield: Sowards 1/2-1; Shope 9(2)-2/2-26; Cannon 7-0/2-14; Arnold 0/1-0; Reiber 1-2; Spargur 1-2; Magee 3/6-3; Adams 3-2/2-8; Barnes 4-4/4-12
Totals: 25(2)-12/19-68
McClain: M. Stegbauer 6-12; E. Stegbauer 2-3/9-7; Uhrig 2-2/2-6; Scott 1/2-1; Burchett 1(1)-5; Karnes 1-2; Smith 1-1/2-3; Pitzer 2(1)-7
Totals: 15(2)-7/15-43
Boys
On Tuesday the Lions got off to a fast start as they outscored McClain 16-7 in the first quarter behind a strong performance from Cody Gragg and Sam Buddlemeyer who combined to score 12 of the Lions 16 points in the period.
The Tigers were able to find a little bit of a rhythm in the second quarter when they scored 10 points and limited the Lions to only 10 points to trail 26-17 at the half.
McClain outscored Fairfield by one in the third quarter, 15-14, to head to the fourth with the game in reach at 40-32. However in the fourth period Buddlemeyer, Gragg and Tucker Ayres put the Lions on their back combining to score all 15 of Fairfield’s points in the frame. The trio also helped lead the defensive effort that limited the Tigers to only five fourth quarter points.
Ayres, Gragg and Buddlemeyer all recorded double digit points on the night to lead the Lions with 16, 15 and 13 points respectively.
(Box Score)
FHS: 16-10-14-15
MHS: 7-10-15-5
Fairfield: Gragg 6-3/4-15; Setty 2/2-2; Buddlemeyer 5-3/4-13; Willey 3-6; Simmons 0/2-0; Irvin 3/4-3; Ayres 6(1)-1/1-16
Totals: 20(1)-12/17-55
McClain: Penwell (1)-3; Duncan 3(1)-9; Carter 4-8; Gray 1-2; Banks 2-2/4-6; Irvin 4-1/2-9
Totals: 14(2)-3/6-37
Reach Ryan Applegate at 937-402-2572, or on Twitter @RCApplegate89.
