Fairfield, which earned the first outright Greater Miami Conference in school history last season, improved to 5-0 overall and 3-0 in the GMC on Friday with a convincing 60-46 win over Princeton before a boisterous crowd at Fairfield.
Senior guard Logan Woods, a Wright State recruit, led three Indians in double figures with 18 points, 11 while Fairfield was breaking the game open with a 21-10 third quarter.
“They just told me to keep shooting,” said the 6-foot-4 Woods, who sank three of his four 3-pointers in the third quarter. “I was just trying to help my team any way I could.”
Junior guard Ray Comey added 13 points and junior Deshawne Crim finished with 12 for Fairfield, which has won each of its last four games by at least 16 points and is 5-0 for the first time since the 2012-2013 season.
“We did know that, but we’re just trying to take it one game at a time,” the 6-2 Comey said.
The Indians went 13-1 in the GMC last season with the only loss by two at Middletown and 14-4 overall during the regular season before being upset by Lakota West – a team they’d beaten twice in the regular season – in the first round of the Division I tournament.
“That’s all we talk about,” Comey said.
To help them get used to pressure competition, Wyrick strove to put together a more challenging non-conference schedule.
“That’s in the back of our minds,” he said about last season’s disappointing tournament experience. “Our goal is to be as good as we can by tournament.”
It helps that Fairfield was able to add 6-2 guard Kollin Tolbert to the roster. Tolbert, the 2019-2020 Southwest Ohio Conference Player of the Year while playing for Mount Healthy, spent last season at a prep school before transferring to Fairfield. He went into Friday’s game fifth in the GMC with an average of 6.8 rebounds per game before grabbing seven against the Vikings.
“Last year’s team had some good rebounders,” Woods said. “This year, we need our guards to help rebound.”
The first half featured all six of the game’s lead changes before Fairfield took the lead for good on 6-5 senior forward Owen Bronston’s 3-pointer from the left corner for a 19-17 advantage with 6:14 left before halftime. The Vikings kept it close and trained by only three, 27-24, at halftime before the Indians roared out of the locker room and took over the game in the third quarter. They led by as many as 19 points in the second half.
“We put our foot on the gas,” Comey said. “I was in attack mode.”
“I thought they out-toughed us in the first half – 50-50 balls, rebounding,” Wyrick said. “In the second half, we had a little more of an edge. We were a little bit more focused.
“We had a decent little chat at halftime,” he added. “We told them, ‘We’re at home. It’s a GMC game. We shouldn’t have to be begging for energy.’”
Somebody asked him if it felt gratifying to see players respond to a coach’s message so well.
“I wouldn’t say gratifying,” he said. “To me, it’s more like them responding. I listen to them on the bench when I’m talking with the coaches during a timeout. I can hear them telling each other what they’ve got to do better. We have great leadership.”
Fairfield is scheduled to play a third consecutive home game on Tuesday against Middletown. Tipoff is scheduled for 7:30 p.m.
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