Defense and fourth quarter foul shots lift Fairfield

FAIRFIELD — The Fairfield boys basketball team has had a plethora of games this season that have come down to the wire, with the Trojans coming out on the losing end, but it was a different story against Albia.

Fairfield used fierce fourth quarter defense and stellar shooting at the line to pull out a 52-47 victory over the Blue Demons.

“We held them to five points in the fourth quarter, I thought that was really good,” Fairfield head coach Mick Flattery said. “We hit free throws. We played more power basketball, which we needed to do.”

Fairfield was led by a 26 point outing from Max Weaton, with a dominating second half in which he scored 19.

“He was kind of getting away from his baseline drop-step moves and he didn’t need to,” Flattery said. “We tried to implant that in his head that it’s time to get down there and get dirty. Lets go to work down inside.”

The Trojans had led by as much as 11 in the contest, but by the fourth quarter, they found themselves all tied up with the Blue Demons at 42-42.

Fairfield would outscore the Demons 10-5 in the fourth, but Albia gave them quite a scare to start the quarter.

After taking a two-point lead from two Weaton free throws, Albia answered back with a deep three that banked in off the glass to make it a 45-44 game with the Trojans trailing. The two teams traded the lead once more before the Trojans iced it.

Weaton scored seven in the fourth, while hitting three free throws in the final two minutes of the game, and Tate Allen — who sat for the majority of the game due to foul trouble — scored a bucket and grabbed a critical rebound to send Fairfield to the line.

“He’s just a tough nut,” Flattery said of Allen. “We have to get those fouls drawn back, but he’s just an energizer bunny for our team. I’m glad he’s on my team.”

Following the first quarter and early into the second it was all Fairfield. After one, the Trojans held a 17-11 lead with eight points coming from JJ Lane. To begin the second quarter, Fairfield capped off an 8-0 run, which began at the end of the first. An Allen two gave the Trojans their largest lead of the game 22-11.

From then on out Albia clawed back. The Blue Demons rattled back-to-back shots from deep, sparking a 16-7 run to the end of the quarter. Turnovers hurt the Trojans in the second as four straight possessions ended in turnovers and by the halftime whistle the lead had dwindled to just two, 29-27.

“We’ve had a lot of games where we’ve let guys come back,” Weaton said. “Coach taught us in practice when you got teams down it’s time to ‘step on their throat’ and finish them. We were able pick it up and realize it’s a team effort. We started to dominate.”

Fairfield struggled to find offensive rhythm to begin the third, not finding the bottom of the net for nearly four minutes. The Trojans were able to keep the game in check, trailing 31-29 by their first point of the quarter.

From then on out, the Southeast Conference scoring leader Weaton went to work. After scoring just seven points in the first half, Weaton scored 12 points in the third quarter alone.

“The plan wasn’t just get it to me,” Weaton said. “It was work that ball inside and outside. I think our offense thrives at getting it inside because it opens up our shooters. It just happened to be me driving lanes.”

Despite Weaton’s scoring Albia was able to win the quarter, 15-13 to knot it up going into the fourth.

Along with Weaton’s scoring, he also grabbed nine boards. Tate Allen and JJ Lane both finished with 12 a piece. Ryan Higgins added two.

Fairfield improves to 5-10 overall on the season and is currently 1-7 in conference play.