Carson Francis, Staff Writer
Southern Ohio Sports Authority is presented by OhioHealth.
COLUMBUS — If Brody Smith had played his final game of basketball on Thursday evening, he would have walked away after leaving everything on the floor.
Thankfully, for Fairfield, it won’t be his last.
The Lions faced Plain City Shekinah Christian in a Division VII regional semifinal at Ohio Dominican University, looking to get back into a regional final for the first time in 48 years.
On paper, Fairfield was playing the role of underdog facing a team that stood at 25-1. But Smith helped the Lions make a statement from the get-go — who was and who wasn’t “supposed” to win simply did not matter.
Smith, who knocked down five threes on his way to a 23-point performance, helped the Lions get out to a quick start and never looked back, grinding out a 54-41 victory to earn the program a long-awaited trip to the Elite 8.
CREDIT: Raymond Gleadle/SOSA
“It seems a little surreal, but those guys made it happen. Their attitude, their willingness to buy in, their execution of the game plan, we’ve gotten so much better throughout the year,” Fairfield coach Raymond Friend said. “We knew [Shekinah Christian] was 25-1, but we felt that we weren’t coming in as underdogs in our team’s opinion. We had confidence and executed, and it felt good to come out with a win, especially when you hold a good team like that to 41 points.”
Three of Smith’s five triples came in the first quarter, where the junior put up the first nine points of the night for his team. Those nine points were as many as Shekinah Christian put up in the frame, and the Lions held an 11-9 lead after the first eight minutes.
Fairfield (19-6) got some of its other starters rolling in the second quarter.
Caleb Rice, Griffin Friend and Zach Ahsaruk, along with Smith, all graced the scoresheet as the Lions created separation and built a 29-17 lead going into the break.
Shekinah Christian wasn’t going away quietly, however.
Coming out of the half, the Flames slowly started chipping away at the deficit. David Miller dished the rock to AJ Yoder, who went up strong and laid it off the glass for two, capping off an 8-3 run and cutting Fairfield’s lead to 32-25 at the 5:35 mark in the third.
Still, the Lions had one simple answer: Brody Smith.
Smith connected on two more treys to give himself 19 points at the end of the third, and Fairfield built its lead back up to 41-32 heading into the final frame.
“He’s our spark plug. We know that he has the ability to shoot from just about anywhere, so we want to feed off of him,” Raymond Friend said of Smith. “When he comes out and hits a couple early, it makes a huge difference in what we want to do.”
The Flames tried to give themselves chances, cutting the lead to eight with 4:56 remaining. But from that point on, Fairfield knew it was winning time, and the Lions rose to the occasion.
Friend scored six of his eight second-half points in the fourth quarter, while Ahsaruk and Quentin McIntosh hit some free throws down the stretch to seal the deal.
When the final buzzer sounded, Fairfield’s crowd erupted as the Lions celebrated their first trip to the Elite 8 in 48 years.
Following Smith’s 23-point showing for Fairfield was Griffin Friend, who ended the contest with 14 points. Rice finished with eight points, and Quentin McIntosh contributed five points while snagging a game-high 13 rebounds.
“[McIntosh] gets us going. He’s an emotional leader. We know our guys can play defense because we know we have him on the back end,” Raymond Friend said. “It’s been a lot of fun watching him and seeing him grow up this year.”
Fairfield will advance to Saturday’s Division VII regional final against Malvern, who beat Southern by a 58-56 final in overtime to advance.
That matchup will take place back at Ohio Dominican University at 5 p.m.
After ending a 48-year drought, the Lions will look to pen history once more and earn their first Final 4 trip in school history.
“It’s going to mean something to this group of guys, but it’s going to mean a whole lot to the whole town of Leesburg,” Raymond Friend said on the chance to go to the Final Four. “We’ve never been there. Our school has never been to the Final Four. This is our biggest opportunity, and we’re not going to take it lightly.
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