By Mark Carpenter
People’s Defender
Sometimes the final score of a sporting event is not always indicative of how competitive the contest actually was. That was the case on Friday night at the Hound Pound at Manchester High School. Rolling into town with an unblemished record and a #2 ranking in the state of Ohio in Division IV, the Fairfield Lions were likely favored to easily throttle the host Greyhounds, by over 30 points in some pregame predictions. But no one informed the Hounds that they were to roll over and give up to the powerful Lions
As is was, the host Greyhounds put up quite a battle, overcoming a very slow start to continually fire salvos at their visitors, only to see the Lions have an answer for each and every one. The final score was a 60-49 win for the Lions, but things were often much closer than that indicates.
“Fairfield has some kids that can play and score ,” said Manchester head coach Austin Kingsolver. “They score 20 in the first quarter on us and most of them were either second chances or runout layups. We’re right there in a five point game with 3 or 4 minutes left.”
“If we put four quarters together, we can play with anybody.”
It looked early as if the Lions planned to take the Hounds to the woodshed as the visitors came out of the gates firing, taking advantage of the home team’s carelessness with the basketball to race to a 14-2 advantage and force a pair of timeouts from Coach Kingsolver. The second timeout turned out to be a profitable one as the Hounds got three-pointers from Parker Hayslip and Braylan Robert to start chopping into that Fairfield lead. A baseline jumper by Drew Kennedy in the final seconds of the first quarter pulled the Hounds within 20-10.
The Hounds opened the second quarter and cut the deficit to single digits with an Aaron Lucas trey but just as quickly the Lions answered with a three-ball from TJ Mootz and a two-pointer from Gabe Fouch to go up 25-13. The lead stayed around that margin, the two teams swapping triples, Connor Darnell for the Hounds and Wyatt Collins for the Lions.
The home team got back to within single digits at 30-21 and a basket in the closing seconds of the first half by Manchester’s Elijah Crabtree kept the Hounds within striking distance and with a little confidence, trailing 32-23 at the break.
It took the Hounds over to minutes to change their side of the board in the third quarter, but a second Lucas three-pointer cut the Fairfield lead to 34-26. But again the Lions had a response, a bucket by Larkin Friend and a free throw from Gunner Bennington to again lead by double digits. The visitors remained up by double figures through the remainder of the third stanza, leading 46-34 as the two teams headed into the final eight minutes.
The Hounds struck first in the final period, two Darnell free throws after a technical foul was whistled on Fairfield’s Collins a bucket from Braylan Roberts and a drive and score from Darnell that ended in a three-point play that made it 46-41 and kept the Greyhound faithful on their feet in anticipation of a brewing upset.
But as they had all night, the Lions answered, A three-ball from Tytis Cannon extended the lead back to eight but a nice backdoor cut and score from Drew Kennedy kept the Hounds within 49-43 and the home team had numerous opportunities to close that gap even farther but came up with nothing but empty possessions on their offensive end.
A three-pointer by Fouch opened the Fairfield lead to 54-46 and with a golden opportunity to inch closer, the Hounds twice missed the front end of bonus situations at the free throw line before long corner trey by Horner did cut the deficit to 54-49 with 1:20 to play, but those were to be the final Manchester points on the evening. In the game’s final minute, the Lions got a basket from Fouch then pairs of free throws from Mootz and Cannon that made the final score an 11-point difference, in a game that was much more competitive than that.
TJ Mootz led the winners with 17 points, joined in double figured by teammates Wyatt Collins with 14 and Tytis Cannon 13. The Lions improved to 14-0 on the season.
The Greyhounds were led by Connor Darnell’s 14 points, with Braylan Roberts and Leland Horner chipping in 9 each. Drew Kennedy scored 6, but expended an impressive amount of energy on the defensive end, holding Tytis Cannon, the SHAC’s leading scorer, six points below his season average.
“Over the last few weeks, Drew has really stepped up defensively,” said Coach Kingsolver. ‘He’s had to guard the other team’s best scorer. He’s long and athletic and is starting to play a lot more physical.”
The Greyhounds did bounce back the following afternnon with a 56-46 home win over the Felicity Cardinals, improving their revord to 6-10 on the season.
Fairfield
20 12 14 14 —60
Manchester
10 13 11 15 —49
Fairfield (60): Friend 2 2-2 6, Collins 6 0-0 14, Fouch 3 0-0 7, Cannon 5 2-2 13, Mootz 5 4-4 17, Bennington 1 1-2 3, Team 22 9-10 60.
Manchester (49): Hayslip 1 0-0 3, Roberts 3 2-3 9, Darnell 4 4-6 14, Kennedy 3 0-0 6, Horner 4 0-0 9, Crabtree 1 0-0 2, Lucas 2 0-0 6, Team 28 6-9 49.
Three-Point Goals:
Fairfield (7)- Collins 2, Fouch 1, Cannon 1, Mootz 3
Manchester (7)- Hayslip 1, Roberts 1, Darnell 2, Horner 1, Lucas 2
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