Late run lifts Mustangs over Fairfield

Fairfield opened up a five-point advantage early, Davis County led by as many as 16 in the third quarter and Fairfield climbed back to within three before one final burst made everything add up to a 69-56 victory for the Mustangs.

Aaron Halls and Kyle Graves each dropped a game-high 20 points and were integral to several Davis County (5-1) runs that created the final result. The Mustangs had an 11-0 burst in the second quarter, 12-1 in the third and 16-4 in the fourth.

?There were the few stretches when we kind had some lapses and they took advantage of it,? said Fairfield (0-6) head coach Tyler Miklo. ?It?s a team that?s well conditioned and is going to run for 32 minutes. We played 26 minutes well enough to win, but we?re not good enough to take a few minutes off like that.?

Fairfield squeezed in a quick counter, but never quite got over the hump.

Grant Curran got the Trojans started with the first eight points of the fourth quarter capped by Jordan Leazer?s feed to Cody Kool that made the score 52-49 with just under six minutes remaining. But Davis County answered with 16 of the next 20 points scored ? 10 of which put in by Halls ? to seal the game.

Fairfield started off with its best offensive quarter of the season as junior Brent Buch scored five of his eight points and Leazer and Curran each added four as part of a first period that ended with the Trojans leading 17-14.

Curran finished with 16 points, Leazer scored 12 and Davis Lowenberg added 10 to lead Fairfield.

?I hate excuses, but it was our fifth game in a week?s time, so we may have been due for a mental letdown,? said Mustang head coach Jeff Graves after his team finished right on its season average of 69 points. ?You can talk all you want about staying focused, but we didn?t come out that way. I had to sit some guys down, but they played much better after realizing being on the court is better than the bench.?

The Trojans picked up their highest point total of the year thanks in large part to a first half that ended with 29 points ? just shy of the 30 points they put up for the entire game in Friday?s loss to Washington. A turnover reduction from Friday?s tally of 33 to 14 made that possible also gave Fairfield a shot in the fourth quarter.

?We gave ourselves a chance. There have been several games this year where we haven?t done that by making careless turnovers,? Miklo said. ?We?ve put an emphasis on that, and it just helps so much when we get shots up instead of giving up the ball.?

Davis County also handled the Fairfield defense however and did most of its work with jump shots just over defenders.

?We shot well in transition, and if those don?t go, it?s probably going to be a tough to get rebounds and things go from there,? said Graves. ?We had a few guards that were red hot for a while and that carried us.?

The Mustangs also found a rhythm from the free-throw line hitting on 13-of-17 helped by leading scorers Graves and Halls combining for a 10-of-12 effort. Josh Martsching added 14 more points.

?They really attacked. We stepped in to take some charges, and generally that will slow a team down, but they kept coming,? Miklo said. ?Then they made some tough shots and just kept doing what they do best.?

Fairfield will now have one more shot to get into the win column before winter break as it prepares for Monday?s non-conference game at home vs. West Branch.