Fairfield boys take care of Oskaloosa

FAIRFIELD — Fairfield boys basketball opened its season with a victory over Oskaloosa Tuesday night, 63-44.

The Trojans come into the year with a team that only has two seniors, but with nine experienced juniors, Fairfield is poised for success.

In Tuesday nights contest, the Trojans were slow to get out of the gates, but as the game progressed they found their stride

In the first quarter, both teams were at a stalemate for the first three minutes of the game with Fairfield leading 2-0. They would proceed add on that lead with another 6 points.

It was looking exactly like the start the Trojan’s needed; however, the Indians came back with a 7-0 run of their own, cutting the lead to 8-7.

“They continued to get multiple attempts because of our lack of boxing out and rebounding,” Fairfield head coach Mick Flattery said. “Once we got better at that in the second half, then we were able to distance ourselves. We’ve got multiple scorers, and we feel if we can dig down and play defense like we can we can do a lot of good things.”

By the end of the first period, Fairfield held an 11-8 lead.

In the second, Fairfield began to look sharper on the defensive side of the ball.

The Trojans held the Indians to just two points for over five minutes in the quarter.

By the end of the second, Fairfield held its largest lead of the game, 23-14.

The Trojans let the Indians hang around for the first two periods, before pulling away in the third.

In the last two periods of the game, Fairfield hit its offensive stride.

In the third, the Trojan’s outscored the Indian’s 17-12, extending their lead, 40-26.

In the fourth, both teams had their best offensive quarter.

Fairfield continued to do what they had done all game, live in the paint.

The Trojans scored 23 points to the Indians 18 in the fourth.

The Trojans led with a paint heavy attack in the contest.

They shot 19 threes, but only connected on five of them; however, in the paint they made 24 shots at a 44.4% clip.

A large part of the paint success was in part due to junior Max Weaton. Weaton led all scorers with 23 points, while also tallying a double-double with 14 rebounds.

JJ Lane chipped in 13 points. Tate Allen, Evan Haines, and Hunter Cecchini all added 9.

Having so many options on the scoring end is something Flattery is glad to see.

“We had a great balance,” he said. “That’s the luxury of this team. If you try to double Max, he’s gonna be kicking it, and Tate, JJ and those guys are gonna be knocking them down.”

The Trojans, 1-0, will head to Washington on Friday Dec. 3 in a match up of conference rivals.

Comments: hunter.moeller@southeastiowaunion.com