Southern Ohio Sports Authority is presented by OhioHealth.
ZANESVILLE — It was never in doubt.
All season long, Fairland has proven itself to be a cut above its competition. Tuesday was just the latest example of the Dragons’ ability to be dominant.
Forcing 13 first half turnovers and instructing a shooting clinic from deep range, coach Jon Buchanan’s group extended its season with a 63-22 drubbing of West Muskingum in a Division II regional semifinal at Zanesville High School.
CREDIT: Derrick Webb/SOSA
“We felt that we had a good chance to put some pressure on them, and the girls did a great job following the scouting report,” Buchanan said. “We haven’t played much pressure defense throughout the whole tournament, just mainly stuck to our half-court defense. Forcing early turnovers led to some early shots that gave us momentum and we never looked back.”
From the opening tip, the Dragons (25-1) were firing on all cylinders, hungry for yet another regional final appearance.
Bailey Russell, Bree Allen and Kylee Bruce each buried triples as part of a 13-4 start to the game. Isa Taliaferro then splashed a triple after back-to-back buckets from Bruce and Kamryn Barnitz, pushing the lead to 20-5 and closing out the first ahead 23-9.
“It gives the kids a lot of confidence getting out to those fast starts. Our preparation was really good and our plan we had coming into the game was working,” Buchanan said. “I don’t remember who made them, but that’s the thing about us. We have so many options and we trust everyone to take a shot because that’s the type of team we want and continue to be.”
In total, the Dragons buried six triples in the first half alone, building a 30-11 lead at one point before shifting into cruise control throughout the rest of the night.
The Dragons canned 12 treys on the night and forced 20 Tornado turnovers.
“We felt West Muskingum might be the best team we’ve faced all year when it came to help off the dribble penetration from what we noticed on the film we watched,” Buchanan said. “It wasn’t as much tonight, but I think they were also worried about our shooters since they didn’t want to overhelp. What we noticed was when the ball was dumped inside, they were completely magnetized to the ball. But our kids did a great job taking care of the ball and being physical at the point of attack.”
Bruce finished the night with a game-high 20 points, four rebounds and four assists. Meanwhile, Russell ended with 16 points and Allen added 10 points and seven rebounds.
Fairland returns to action in a Division II regional final at 7 p.m., Friday at Zanesville. The Dragons will face Sheridan, who defeated Carrollton to advance.
“It’ll be a bit different going from playing every six days in district tournament to playing two games in four days in regional action,” Buchanan said. “The biggest thing for us is making sure that we’re well rested. There’s not much you’re going to change or implement within 48-72 hours, so we’ll refine some things, go over some film and put a gameplan together.”
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