Brock Netter, Editor
Southern Ohio Sports Authority is presented by OhioHealth.
WAVERLY — Anything less than a Sweet 16 appearance is a failed season at Fairland.
Over the past five years, the Dragons have been at the head of the class — whether it be in Division II or Division V, when it comes to tournament season.
However, it’s not lost on the Dragons (21-4) how special a district title is.
Saturday was the upholding of a standard they’ve built, resulting in their fifth straight district championship with a resounding 69-38 victory over West (15-10).
“We’ve been challenging our kids the last couple of weeks to come out with a better effort,” Fairland coach Jon Buchanan said. “We felt like, obviously, our senior group has won a lot of games. They don’t know what it feels like not to win. But we’ve been coming out flat the last couple of weeks. So we’ve been really stressing to come out like, you know, our hair is on fire. I thought we did that early. We got out to a really good start.”
CREDIT: Brock Netter/SOSA
Early on, Brayleigh Pistole scored five of the Senators’ opening seven points to keep them within an 8-7 margin of Fairland.
However, the Dragons quickly went on an 8-0 run behind Addison Godby and Isa Taliaferro to go up 16-7.
That run extended the lead to 13-0 before Pistole and Ava Buckner scored to cut the deficit to 21-11 after the first quarter.
West continued to fight its way back into the game as Pistole, Macey Whisman and Lauryn Trinidad logged baskets to bring the Senators to within 25-17.
But that’s where the Dragons began to flex their muscles.
Fairland’s defense swarmed and closed gaps with cat-like quickness, forcing one turnover after another.
Meanwhile, it led to baskets on the other end from Taliaferro, Godby, Bailey Russell and Addyson Cornell. It helped the Dragons end the first half on a 13-3 spurt to go ahead 38-20 at the break.
In the first two quarters alone, the Dragons forced 19 of their 32 total turnovers on the night.
Despite the near 10-point lead, they weren’t quite satisfied with their first half since they shot under 40 percent from the field and just 2-of-13 from distance.
They changed their approach a bit in the third quarter, relentlessly attacking the rim and only taking shots from distance if wide open.
Luckily, Taliaferro found herself wide open and buried a pair of triples, alongside buckets inside from Godby and Riley Russell to push the lead past 20 points, creating a hole much too big for the Senators to climb from.
“I thought we had a really good game on the defensive end,” Buchanan said. “We were really worried about them using their size and they run a lot of high-low action. We took that away all night long. So I was just super impressed with our energy and our effort. It’s hard to lose a game where you force 30 turnovers.”
Taliaferro finished the night with a game-high 21 points, followed by Russell with 17 points. Godby had 13 points, seven rebounds and five assists.
For West, Pistole finished the night with 15 points and eight rebounds.
Fairland returns to action at 6 p.m., Wednesday in a Division V regional semifinal against Waynesville, who defeated Williamsburg to advance.
That game will happen at Lakota East High School.
“Waynesville is really good,” Buchanan said. “They’ve got an elite point guard. We’re very familiar with them. We played them last year in the same round in the same gym. So we’re pretty familiar with them. Obviously, everyone wants to get to the Sweet 16. And after playing in a few state tournaments and a few regionals, it’s really the team that plays best that week that has the chance to advance. If you have a bad night, you’re going to go home. But if we play like we did tonight, I like our chances.”
SPONSORS
GLO FIBER
SCHMIDT FAMILY RESTAURANT GROUP
