Phillips gets hot, boosts Fairfield in 54-48 win over Kings

Ben Phillips found his groove Tuesday night and led the Fairfield High School boys basketball team to a solid nonconference win.

Phillips, a senior forward, scored 15 total points in the Indians’ first three games, but he punished visiting Kings with 17 points, six rebounds and three assists.

The final score was 54-48 at the Fairfield Arena.

“A lot of guys stepped up today,” Phillips said. “I’ve been struggling in a scoring slump, but I bounced back. My team passed the ball. They had a big dude, but we worked around him. It all came together tonight for me. I hit a 3 in the corner, and a lot of stuff worked out offensively.”

The Indians (3-1) never led in the first half and were on the back end of a 19-18 score at the break, but the hosts shot 75 percent (12 of 16) from the floor the rest of the way.

“In the locker room, we said, ‘We’ve just got to toughen up,’ ” Phillips said. “We were taking bad shots, rushed shots. In the second half, we came out and calmed down. We got to the free-throw line way more. The main goal was getting to the bucket and getting those fouls.”

Fairfield converted 9 of 12 free throws, 8 of 10 in the final seven minutes.

“We stopped throwing the ball away and making stupid turnovers,” Indians coach Jeff Sims said. “We started taking the right shot and running our motion. We worked all week on motion … screening action, two-man screens, trying to get the right pass. Now we’ve just got to trust it.

“We really focused on getting the ball inside in the second half. We said, ‘Let’s not chuck it up from 3 on the first two passes.’ That’s what we did in the first quarter. We wanted to get the ball to Ben and take advantage of what he can do inside and out.”

Phillips was 7 of 10 from the field and marked six points in the fourth quarter.

“What I’ve said all along is that some of Ben’s struggles have not been Ben. It’s been us,” Sims said. “He’s a leader. The kids revolve around him and follow what he says. I think they wanted him to do well too.”

Andre Givens sank a trio of 3-pointers and totaled 10 points for Fairfield. Devonte Ross had nine points, and Blake Spaulding and Kyle Schimpf added seven apiece.

The Tribe took the lead for good (31-29) on Aiden Jones’ driving layup with 2:31 left in the third stanza. Fairfield extended that margin to 52-41 in the last minute of the game.

Tyler Mitchell (14), Gabe Stacy (13) and Clay Spivey (11) topped the scoring for the Knights (2-3). Tyler Knecht contributed seven boards and seven assists.

“I thought we came out and played well to start. We had energy, then I think we kind of let up a little bit,” said Kings coach Nick Molz, a cousin of Monroe coach Kenny Molz. “They hardly missed in the second half. You can say that’s good shooting, but I think we also could’ve played a little bit harder and could’ve done some things better defensively.

“We said at halftime that they were going to come out and raise their game, and we had to make sure we were raising our game. I think we needed to be more aggressive offensively at times, and we weren’t.

“It’s about how we’ve been playing. We can’t put four quarters together right now. That’s on me. I need to make sure we’re prepared to play. I’ll take credit for the poor play. We’ve just got to get better.”

Both teams made seven 3-pointers and shot 46.7 percent from beyond the arc. Givens had three assists and three steals for the Indians, while Spaulding collected five assists. Ross added five boards.

The Knights are playing three straight Greater Miami Conference opponents. They’re at Sycamore on Friday, then host Lakota West on Dec. 28.

Fairfield will be at home against Elder on Friday. Former FHS head coach Tim Austing is a Panther assistant, yet teaches with Sims at the Fairfield Freshman School.

“We’ve talked every day about basketball for the last 20 years, so it’s going to be fun to have Elder here and see what we can do with them,” said Sims, noting that an alumni reception will be held after the game.

“Timmy was here tonight. As I was walking out, he was sitting there waiting on me at halftime telling me what he thought we could do better. I think it’ll be a nice atmosphere on Friday. There’s not a lot of pressure in the game. It’s just fun to play.”

The Tribe’s only loss was a blowout at the hands of Mason. Sims said the Comets are simply better than his team right now.

“I think we’ve played three other teams that are equal to us, so I’m really happy to get those wins,” the Fairfield coach added.

Phillips said the Indians are aiming high after going 12-13 last season.

“The bar was set a couple years ago with that banner up there … Final Four,” he said. “We try to reach that every year. It’s my senior year, and you always strive for the top. It happens day by day in practice with Coach Sims pushing us every day.”

Kings 13-6-12-17—48

Fairfield 5-13-17-19—54

KINGS (2-3): Gabe Stacy 5 0 13, Tyler Mitchell 6 0 14, Clay Spivey 4 1 11, Dan Sichterman 3 0 6, Matt Sichterman 2 0 4. Totals: 20-1-48

FAIRFIELD (3-1): Devonte Ross 1 6 9, Andre Givens 3 1 10, Blake Spaulding 3 0 7, Kyle Schimpf 3 0 7, Aiden Jones 1 0 2, Isaiah Phillips 1 0 2, Ben Phillips 7 2 17. Totals: 19-9-54

3-pointers: K 7 (Stacy 3, Mitchell 2, Spivey 2), F 7 (Givens 3, B. Phillips, Schimpf, Spaulding, Ross)

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