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LEESBURG — After falling behind by as many as 13 points early in the second half on Thursday, the Piketon Redstreaks slowly worked their way back into the contest, but couldn’t seem to get back over the hump.
SOSA File Photo
That was until seven seconds remaining in the game, courtesy of senior Jazz Lamerson.
Lamerson buried a 3 from the right wing to give the Redstreaks (8-1) their only lead of the night, which was enough to beat Fairfield by a 30-29 final in non-league action.
“I started off slow and I was cold. I can’t thank [Piketon coach] Jason [Taylor] enough for ripping me in the locker room and getting me back in my groove,” Lamerson said. “I was just thinking, ‘I have to hit this shot.’ I’ve been here three years and I’ve been in situations like that before. It’s about time I hit a shot like that.”
The Redstreaks had trailed throughout the evening, largely because of the hot start the Lions (5-2) got off to behind Faith Donley and Peyton Magee.
Donley and Magee took advantage of a sluggish Redstreaks’ defense in the opening minutes by constantly pushing the tempo to get shots at the basket. Donley was able to get two layups and two assists, one to Hailey Tolle for a foul line jumper and the other to Magee for a corner 3. Following Magee’s triple, it was all Lions, leading Piketon by a score of 13-3 after the first quarter of play.
All of those Redstreaks’ points came from post Natalie Cooper, with no other players able to get good looks at the rim due to a stingy Lion defense. However, Piketon made a big adjustment to the pace that the Lions’ were looking to play with and only allowed one more transition score throughout the rest of the game.
By eliminating the running game, the ‘Streaks were able to force Fairfield into their preferred half court game.
“We, as a team, have to lead with each other. There’s no individuals on this team. We’re all five united,” Cooper said. “I knew if I could go in and get a couple of shots to fall, I knew everyone else would follow through. It’s just awesome to know that, no matter what, we can feed off each other’s energy.”
Piketon didn’t even score 10 points in the entire first half, but it still felt like the Redstreaks were starting to impose their will. After a buzzer-beating layup from Laney Brown, Piketon had cut the halftime deficit to 19-9 and looked to make adjustments at the break.
“Answer the bell,” Lamerson said. “That’s what [Taylor] kept telling us. That’s exactly what we did. We came out with that energy. When we can compete with Unioto, we knew we could compete with [Fairfield]. We came out of the locker room and knew we had to step it up. That’s exactly what we did.”
Coming out of the break, it was clear what the Redstreaks were going to focus on … getting the ball into the paint. After Fairfield’s Hannah Hamilton splashed a corner 3 to extend the lead to 13, Piketon started to implement coach Taylor’s plan.
Back-to-back baskets for Kennedy Jenkins at the rim forced a timeout. After the timeout, Piketon’s defense turned up the heat with Lamerson, Allie Taylor and Addie Johnson hounding Fairfield’s ball-handlers and not allowing any looks at the basket.
On the offensive end, hoops from Cooper and Jenkins continued to chip away at the deficit. A nice cut through the lane by Lamerson put the finishing touches on a 12-2 run that cut the Lions’ lead to 24-21 after three.
In the fourth, the Redstreaks couldn’t get anything going against the Lions’ zone defense, missing a couple of outside jumpers and then compounding that with turnovers. A steal and a layup from Hamilton gave the Lions a five-point lead with 5:11 left in the game.
That’s when Piketon really pounded the ball inside, getting back-to-back buckets from Cooper to cut the lead to 26-25 with 2:30 left. A well-designed play from Fairfield was able to get Donley an open look from the right corner and she converted to force a Piketon timeout with 2:07 remaining.
Once out of the timeout, Allie Taylor found Cooper inside for a tough layup with a little over a minute left in the contest. And, after the teams traded turnovers and Fairfield missed a free throw, Piketon took possession with 35 seconds to play.
With the Lions back into a zone, the Redstreaks were looking to get Cooper the ball inside, but she was well-defended, which forced Piketon to look for open driving lanes since they rarely attempt shots from beyond the 3-point arc.
The key word there was “rarely.”
Johnson drew a defender to her and found Lamerson on the wing, who buried the open triple to give the ‘Streaks their first lead of the night with only seven ticks remaining — it was Piketon’s only deep ball of the night.
Fairfield was able to call timeout with six seconds left around mid-court, but Lamerson forced the ball-handler into traffic where Jenkins deflected the pass attempt into the waiting hands of Cooper, sending Piketon home a winner.
“I grabbed that ball with all my might,” Cooper said with a smile. “No one was taking that away from me. We’re not taking anyone lightly this year. We won’t let anyone pressure us. We’re going to go back tomorrow and hit the gym hard. We’re not backing down.”
With the victory, Piketon improves to 8-1 on the season, which is their most wins since the 2019-2020 season when they also had eight wins. The Redstreaks were led in scoring by Cooper with 13 points, while Lamerson stuffed the stat sheet with nine points, seven rebounds and five assists.
The Lions were led by Donley with 11 points while Magee added seven of her own. Tolle collected a game-high eight rebounds for the Lions as well.
Piketon will now looks towards Saturday, where it travels to Adena. Meanwhile, Fairfield tries to bounce back on Monday at Manchester.
“We know we’re going to have to keep [Adena’s Emma] Garrison away from the bucket on Saturday,” Lamerson said. “She’s a great player. But we’re going to do our thing. If we play like we know how to, I think we’ll be good. I couldn’t be more proud of everyone. This feels good.”
BOX SCORE
Piketon: 3-6-12-9 — 30
Fairfield: 13-6-5-5 — 29
Piketon: 14-31 FG, 1-2 FT, 1-6 3pt., 30 rebounds, 20 turnovers, 11 assists. Scoring: Cooper 13, Lamerson 9, Jenkins 6, Brown 2
Fairfield: 12-41 FG, 2-6 FT, 3-11 3pt., 16 rebounds, 11 turnovers, 6 assists. Scoring: Donley 11, Magee 7, Hamilton 5, Tolle 4, Hatten 2
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