Last week saw the Northeast Corner Conference basketball tournaments take place, and Fairfield was right in the middle of it.
Fairfield opened its NECC girls basketball title defense with a 38-20 win over Churubusco in the opening round. A 13-2 first quarter, and then a plus-11 third quarter for the Lady Falcons was enough to put the Eagles down 20 and out.
Eva Herbert led the way for Fairfield with 12 points, six rebounds and four assists and Macy Worthman tallied 11 points. Fairfield’s defense held Busco to just 15 percent shooting from the floor, just one bucket made from inside the three-point arc.
Fairfield’s offense was still a little sluggish, but the defense again locked down its opponent as the Lady Falcons bounced Fremont from the tourney, 38-28, Wednesday night at The Nest. Kaylee Dillon scored a game-high 19 points, shooting 64 percent from the floor. Zoie Miller added five points, two rebounds, an assist and a steal and Worthman pulled down nine boards.
Fairfield held Lakeland without a field goal for over a 10-minute stretch between the second and third quarters among a 47-23 semi-final win Thursday evening. Without the services of Dillon and point guard Natalie Whitaker, Fairfield went inside and had 15 points, eight rebounds and three steals from Madison Jones and 13 points from Worthman. Eva Herbert added 10 points, five assists and four rebounds in the victory.
A consistent offensive attack allowed Fairfield to stay ahead of Busco in a 54-34 win in the opening round of the boys tourney. Fairfield hit seven three-pointers in the game, led by three from Brant Garber and two from Mitchell Miller. The two would combine for 19 points, and both Noah Mast and Eli Miller each added eight points.
The Falcons moved to the semis with a resounding 49-28 win over Fremont Wednesday. Fairfield held Fremont scoreless in the first quarter, and Miller scored 11 of his 14 points in the second quarter as the Falcons pulled away. Carson Smith hit for 12 points and Tyson Frey added 11 points against the Eagles.
A nearly packed Nest Thursday night saw bitter rivals Fairfield and Westview square off in the semis. A late Westview rally cut a double-digit Fairfield lead down to five, but Fairfield hit 7-10 free throws in the fourth quarter and had Frey hammer home a monster dunk to punctuate a 58-46 win over the Warriors.
Mitchell Miller led the Falcons with 23 points before fouling out in the fourth. Fairfield picked up the slack with Frey’s eight points, seven points from Mast, and a pair of big threes from Brooks Custer.
The winter weather moved the two NECC Championship games to Monday at Lakeland, the girls against Eastside at 6 p.m. and the boys versus Angola to follow.
The Saturday weather also wiped out wrestling’s trip to the Woodlan Invite as well as the boys and girls JV four-ways at Fairfield and West Noble.