Fairfield starts early in win over East

Good fans, solid ‘D,’ key free-throw shooting lead to road win.

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By John Bombatch, Staff Writer 2:24 AM Saturday, December 10, 2011

LIBERTY TWP. — The game may have been held at Lakota East High School’s “Hawks Nest,” but for a good bit of the opening quarter it felt like a Fairfield home basketball game. That’s because the visiting Indians rolled out to a 12-0 lead and nearly shut out East in the period.

Fairfield’s defense took control from the start, and its offense followed, for a convincing 66-52 win in both teams’ Greater Miami Conference opener on Friday.

“There’s been two themes so far this year for us: Winning with defense, but not pretty; and winning with a good crowd behind us,” Fairfield coach Tim Austing said. “It’s not often that you can go on the road and have a bigger student section, but I think we did tonight. That’s impressive to have that kind of support, and it always helps.”

East (1-1, 0-1 GMC) didn’t have anything to cheer about until the final 16 seconds of the opening period.

Stedman Lowry was fouled on a 3-point try and hit all three free throws to avoid the early shutout. The closest the Thunderhawks could get in the first half was a four-point deficit with three minutes left in the opening half, but Fairfield went into the break with a 26-14 lead.

It didn’t get any better for East in the second half. A pair of 3-pointers by Devon Barlow helped key an 8-2 Fairfield run to start the second half. Barlow said the Indians (3-0, 1-0) seem to feed off each other’s defensive play. That spark then seemed to ignite the offense.

“We play defense intensely,” he said. “We’re five guys out there, playing as a real team. Aggressive. And everybody on this team can make the threes. When one of us starts to hit, another one from somebody else drops right after that.”

Barlow led Fairfield with a career-high 16-point effort. Twelve of those points came from behind the 3-point line.

“Devon is our best defender, but also, more importantly, he’s our emotional defensive leader. When he’s not out there, we all aren’t quite as good on defense,” Austing said.

James Turner and Brandon Murphy each added 12 points for Fairfield, and teammate Tim Fleming finished with 11. Murphy was also strong on the boards, snaring a game-high 11 rebounds.

Lowry finished with a game-high 27 points.

“(The Indians) are a very good basketball team. We knew we’d have to do certain things well to have a chance to win against them, but I felt that our inability to take care of the ball in the first half led to some easy baskets against us,” East coach Wally Vickers said.

East pulled to within 56-50 with two minutes to play, but Fairfield hit its last 10 consecutive free throws for the win.

Fairfield returns to its real home for its next game, a Tuesday night nonleague contest against Centerville. East has a week to prepare for its next GMC game. It’ll play Friday at Oak Hills.

“Being tied for first is something that’s been our goal for a couple years now,” Barlow said. “Now we hope to stay there.”

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