Southern Ohio Sports Authority is presented by OhioHealth.
LEESBURG — Tucked near the top of Highland County is quite possibly one of Southern Ohio’s best kept secrets.
CREDIT: Derrick Webb/SOSA
However, after another victory on Friday, the cat might just be slipping out of the bag.
State-ranked Leesburg Fairfield is still unbeaten and is still alone at the top of the Southern Hills Athletic Conference after a wire-to-wire 54-37 win over North Adams.
The Lions (16-0, 10-0 SHAC) made a living on the offensive glass and had no trouble using the 3-ball to build a sizable lead. When combined with a superb defensive effort, good things started to happen.
Put simply, once Fairfield built its lead, the Green Devils (14-4, 8-2 SHAC) could never get back in the game.
“North Adams is a great team. I thought we won the game on the defensive end. We really bought into the scouting report and, overall, that’s our best defensive game so far,” Fairfield coach Quentin Williams said. “To hold a team that good to 37 points, and to hold Bransyn Copas, who’s one of the best players around, to eight, that’s a great team effort.”
Defensively, the Lions brought out the clamps. And on the other end of the floor, without their leading scorer Tytis Cannon, they found a bevy of ways to put the ball in the bucket — including the aforementioned deep ball.
“We just talked about being patient,” Williams said. “We knew they were going to trap a lot and throw different things at us. We wanted to control our turnovers and accept the traps, and learn how to step through those traps to find the open guy. I thought we did a really good job of that.”
With 4:49 left in the first quarter, Dillon Ragan gave the Devils a 4-2 lead with a pair of free throws. Fairfield’s Gabe Fouch made it 4-4 with a bucket nine seconds later and Larkin Friend gave the Lions a 6-4 advantage after grabbing an offensive rebound with 2:46 left.
PHOTOS: Images from Fairfield’s win over North Adams
North Adams never led again.
Mootz scored with 1:20 remaining and then hit an awarded foul shot, making it 9-6, before hitting a trey with 49.2 seconds left for a 12-6 advantage after one.
NA’s Jayce Rothwell and Fairfield’s Cade Miller traded triples to begin the second before Friend dialed long distance with 4:29 remaining for an 18-9 lead. Friend scored again with 3:48 left and Trey House added another 3-ball at the 3:11 mark, making it 23-9.
“He’s huge for us, especially without Tytis,” Williams said of Friend. “He’s favoring the load of making decisions, bringing the ball up the floor and controlling our pace and how we play. He’s pushing us into our sets. People are also starting to realize that he’s a great offensive rebounder. He’s a great rebounder for his size. The way he played with poise tonight, I think it’s awesome.”
From there, the Lions shifted into cruise control and took a 27-14 lead into the break.
That double-digit lead would remain intact throughout the remainder of the final two quarters with Fairfield leading 40-24 after three before eventually putting away a 17-point victory.
“This group is special. It’s the group I started with in middle school and kind of worked my way up with,” Williams said. “I’ve seen their potential and what they can do. I’m just so proud of them. A lot of teams would have made excuses tonight. You lose your best player but it’s the next man up. We love Tytis and we’re playing for him. But this is just a special group. They’re not going to back down.”
Stat book
Mootz led the way statistically for Fairfield, totaling a game-high 17 points alongside seven rebounds and three assists. As his numbers show, he was fantastic all night long.
“Everything he gets, he deserves,” Williams said of Mootz. “I love that kid to death. I’m just proud of him.”
Following Mootz’ totals was Fouch with 10 points and four rebounds while House added eight points and four boards. Friend ended the night with seven points, eight rebounds and seven helpers.
North Adams was led by Rothwell with 10 points while Copas finished the evening with eight of his own.
What’s on tap
The Lions will look to remain unbeaten on Saturday at Portsmouth Clay while North Adams attempts to get back on track the same evening, hosting Portsmouth.
“We’ve got to take every day as a blessing,” Williams said. “We can’t take anything for granted. It’s one day at a time for us and we don’t look too far ahead. We don’t get caught up in our rankings and all of that. We don’t care. We tell our guys all the time that if they do the right things, they’ll get recognition. I think that’s starting to happen. But we can’t get complacent.”
BOX SCORE
North Adams: 6-8-10-13 — 37
Fairfield: 12-15-13-14 — 54
North Adams scoring: Rothwell 10, Copas 8, Osborne 7, Schweickert 5, Buttelwerth 4, Ragan 2, Hesler 1.
Fairfield scoring: Mootz 17, Fouch 10, House 8, Friend 7, Miller 6, Collins 4, Bennington 2.
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