It was a tale of two cities, to a degree, Monday in the championship games regarding Fairfield in the Northeast Corner Conference basketball tournaments.
The Fairfield boys won their first tournament title since 1999, and did so with relative ease in a 60-38 win over Angola. The Fairfield girls, however, had one of its worst offensive nights of the season while Eastside was red hot shooting the ball in a 53-24 Lady Blazer win, Eastside’s first girls tourney title since 1996.
The boys ran its win streak to eight games with an all-around showcase against the Hornets. After a back-and-forth first quarter had Fairfield up just three, 17-14, the Falcons held the Hornets to just two made field goals in the second quarter while Tyson Frey and Carson Smith combined for 13 points in the frame to help the Falcons to a 32-20 halftime lead.
Smith would continue on to score 18 points to lead all scorers and Noah Mast came through to net 14 points along with a pair of resounding blocks to pace the Falcons.
It’s the fifth NECC tournament title for Fairfield (10-3), which have never won the league and tournament titles in the same season.
The Lady Falcons were shooting to repeat as tourney champions, but were up against an Eastside team that left greater Benton salty a week ago in a three-point Fairfield win. Playing the championship with the services of Sydnee Kessler, who was injured just minutes into the regular season matchup, Eastside looked like a much crisper unit. Kessler made a trio of threes in the first quarter, and the Blazers hit seven from deep in the first half while Fairfield suddenly went ice cold after trailing by just four after one.
The Lady Falcons went almost 12 minutes in between field goals between the second and third quarters, in that stretch Eastside had built a 32-15 lead and never looked back. Eastside hit 12 three-pointers on the night, Kessler with five of those makes and 20 total points.
Eastside held Fairfield to just 18 percent shooting for the game (8-44) and won the battle of the boards, 33-21.
Madison Jones had seven points and three offensive rebounds while Eva Herbert had six points and five defensive rebounds for the Lady Falcons (17-3), which had its six-game win streak snapped.
Of note, with the championship games moved to Monday, the girls basketball games hosting Central Noble have been moved from Tuesday, Jan. 16, to Wednesday, Jan. 17, the JV tipping at 6 p.m. with the varsity to follow.
Fairfield will host Westview in a boys-girls doubleheader Friday night, the girls first at 6 p.m. with the boys to follow. The boys game is the TV-46 Game of the Week.