Fairfield girls foiled by Grinnell

FAIRFIELD - This week's schedule for the Fairfield girls basketball team was the perfect concoction for trouble. One day after grinding out a big win at Martensdale-St. Mary's, the Trojans had to go tow-to-toe with No. 11 Grinnell, the third-highest scoring team in Class 4A, and that boiled down to a 65-37 loss.

Grinnell used a stifling full court press to creat havoc for Fairfield's guards, and the Tigers drained three after three to build a 17-3 lead after one quarter. The Trojans dropped 18 points in the second but went into the halftime locker rooms facing a 42-21 deficit.

': It's not something that was unexpected,” head coach Jeff Miller said. 'They have made and shot more threes than the have twos, so we knew coming in what they were going to do. We (also) knew they were going to press us and play us tough in a man-to-man defense. The one thing I was disappointed in, and we talked about it at halftime, was our rebounds.”

The Trojans were able to scrap in the final two quarters. In the final 16 minutes of play, Fairfield was outscored by just seven points.

'We went in and had a nice chat at halftime,” Coach Miller said. 'In the second half, we played a different game, but by then, they had a 25-30 point lead. We could have withered and died, but we didn't do that. We played hard.”

Nine different Trojans scored in the loss, but nobody was in double figures. Shay Drish finished the game with eight poitns to lead the squad, and Destiny Gridley scored seven.

Hannah Simpson and Darby Kaska finished the night with five poitns each. Danielle Breen scored three points. Delaney Breen, Emily McAvan, Anna Dunlap and Olivia Jones each had two.

Fairfield is now 7-5 overall this season. They are currently 4-1 in Southeast Conference play and will look to stay within one game of first place in Burlington on Friday, January 24. The Trojans will be looking for the season sweep of the Grayhounds after a 74-36 home win earlier this year.