LEESBURG — The Fairfield Lady Lions improved to 2-2 overall on the young season Thursday night when they beat the Whiteoak Lady Wildcats in a dominating 81-9 wire to wire victory.
“We wanted to get back to .500 by this point. Our first two games didn’t go the way that we wanted but we have been able to get back on track,” said Fairfield Head Coach Chad Hamilton. “Tonight was good. We were able to get everybody some minutes and a little bit of experience and hopefully that will help us down the road. We have a busy few weeks here before Christmas and we need all the work we can get.”
The Lady Lions started the game with a 22-0 run over the first six and a half minutes of the game that saw Lady Lions’ starters Briana Barnes, Samara Cannon, Emma Fouch, and Trinity Huff score six,seven, seven and two points respectively.
Whiteoak’s Cylee Braton recorded the only bucket of the first quarter for the Lady Wildcats with 1:30 on the clock.
Madison Bronner had the final four points of the first quarter for Fairfield with a two point field goal followed by two free throws with 12.7 seconds to play to give the Lady Lions a 26-2 edge going into the second quarter.
Braylynn Haines, Molly Thackston and Ella Newkirk got in on the fun to start the second as they combined to score nine consecutive points and extend the Lady Lions lead to 35-2 with the starters on the bench.
When the starters returned they wasted little time as Barnes scored less than 30 seconds later and poured in seven points in under four minutes; Cannon also contributed five points in the same span while Lauren Arnold recorded her only two points of the night on two free throws with 1:09 to play in the half.
Newkirk had the final two baskets of the half for Fairfield on fast breaks resulting from Whiteoak turnovers in the final minute that capped a dominant 27-0 second quarter for the Lady Lions.
The third quarter was more of the same for both teams as Fairfield extended their lead to 63-2 before the Lady Wildcats were able to convert again with a Braton score.
The score was 67-4 at the end of three quarters as Fairfield recorded only two more field goals in the frame and held Whiteoak without a point.
Fairfield added 14 in the fourth to reach their total of 81 and the Lady Wildcats achieved their best quarter of the night as Hailey Montieth netted a three pointer and Braton scored her third bucket and had a chance for a three point play but missed it as Whiteoak finished with nine points in the game.
All 11 players for the Lady Lions scored at least two points in the game and six players finished with at least six points.
Cannon was the leading scorer for Fairfield with 20 points on the night and Barnes was right behind her with 19 of her own in the convincing win.
“It was a good win and it was nice to get everybody in the game,” Hamilton said.
Score by quarters
FHS 16-10-9-16
WHS 5-6-6-10
Fairfield: Newkirk 3(1)-9; Cannon 7(1)-3/3-20; Fouch 2(1)-7; Arnold 2/2-2; Huff 3-6; Saunders 1-2; Thackston 1-2/3-4; Bronner 2-2/2-6; Haines 2-4; Barnes 9-1/2-19; Smith 1-2
Totals: 31(3)-10/12-81
Whiteoak: Montieth (1)-3; Braton 3-0/1-6
Totals: 3(1)-0/1-9
Ryan Applegate is the sports editor for The Times-Gazette. Reach Ryan Applegate at 937-402-2572, or on Twitter @RCApplegate89.
